


Your Scent Like Pine, Like Cedar

by delazeur, thecryoftheseagulls



Series: Logan Hawke - Fadewalk RPs [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Blow Jobs, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Sex, Fluff and Mush, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Insecurity, Kissing, M/M, Roleplay Logs, Scents & Smells, Schmoop, Unintentional Tickling Can Be Dangerous to One's Health, Voice Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:15:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5759086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delazeur/pseuds/delazeur, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecryoftheseagulls/pseuds/thecryoftheseagulls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan and Anders, finally alone again, pick a room in the guest wing of Skyhold and make their way to the baths. Kissing and back washing and ridiculous amounts of fluff ensue.</p><p>Original rp <a href="https://fadewalk.dreamwidth.org/48188.html">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Logan let himself be pulled into the room after a cursory glance seemed to confirm it was unoccupied. It seemed, to his eye, to be decorated in a Marcher style, not overly lavish but not really plain either. The bed, a sturdy looking construction of dark wood hung with crimson and gold trappings, was at least a queen if not a king, and jutted out kitty-corner into the center of the room. A window looked out over the Skyhold grounds, and there was a small seating area with a low couch and a chair just in and to the right of the door. A pair of wardrobes took up one wall. Everything was a little too done up in shades of red for Logan's tastes, but it wasn't horrendous.

"This is nice," he told Anders, eying the map of the Free Marches which hung over the couch. There was a vaguely citrus-y scent hiding under an unused, dusty smell.

\------

Anders let go of Logan's hand after they were inside, turning to close and latch the door behind them. He wasn't feeling great, after the nightmares and the sleepwalking, the uncontrolled magical outburst, being confronted with an older version of himself that was some kind of revolution igniting martyr guy, and a Hawke that had been unhinged by trauma, but still seemed to care about bloody everything. 

He was quiet, hmming in agreement with Logan as he pulled the journal and vest out of the sweatshirt pocket and tossed them on the small table in the sitting area. Then he shucked the sweatshirt itself, and the cardigan underneath it. He was trembling, just a touch, and he wasn't sure what he needed, but he was pretty sure it involved burying himself in Logan for the next several years. 

He toed off his shoes and then walked over to Logan and wrapped himself around the bigger man, a huge, clinging hug, with his face buried in his shoulder.

\------

Logan was turning to him with a question on his lips when Anders wrapped himself around him. His arms wrapped themselves around Anders in turn automatically, and he held him close, possibly too close really, enough to maybe making breathing difficult before too long. 

"I've got you, darlin'," he murmured, turning to kiss the side of Anders' head and breathe in the smell of his hair.

Now that they had some sense of this place they'd been brought to, even if very little real answers as to how or why, and more especially now that they were alone again, Logan recalled his fear from earlier all over again. He kissed the curve of Anders' ear and said, voice soft, "I was scared for you, love."

\------

Anders would probably faint before he complained about the lack of air at this moment, his need to be close a flavor on the back of his tongue. He nodded into Logan's shoulder and whispered, "Me too." 

The eyes in the dark of his dream, not knowing where he was when he woke, the fear that he could have hurt Logan while caught in a nightmare, all of that was more than enough to make him clingy. "If you want to sleep separate, I don't blame you." He said it, even while he was still clutching Logan tightly around the middle, like he was never going to let go. 

"I mean, it could have gone really badly. I walked into a tree and set it on fire while I was still sleeping. I... I could hurt you." Before the worst he could conceive of doing was trying to punch someone who woke him up, and he didn't think Logan had _much_ to fear from him on that front. But fire with his brain? Not good.

\------

"What?" Logan made an aggrieved, wounded noise in the center of his throat at the very idea and pressed Anders closer. "Don't - don't be ridiculous. I should have woke up when you left, and then I could have woken you, and you would have been _safe_." He shook his head, his cheek brushing against Anders' hair. "I can sleep light when I plan it; it's an old habit. It'll be okay. You won't hurt me. You didn't set anything on fire until I wasn't there."

Logan shook his head a few more times, thinking of Anders alone in a room without his meds, facing nightmares and night terrors and now _demons_ , with no one to stop him from wandering anywhere in the castle while he was asleep. No. No, definitely not. Leaving aside the fact that Logan was pretty sure he was incapable of being in Anders' vicinity and not wrapping himself up in him and staying there, he was most certainly not letting Anders face any of that alone.

"Absolutely not. I'm not leaving you alone here." He cleared his throat against its sudden rasp.

\------

Anders stiffened for just a moment when Logan insisted he could disrupt his own sleep to keep an eye on him, like he was going to argue, but Logan's certainty just mowed that under. He let out a soft, shuddering sigh, feeling nothing but relief. 

"Okay." He turned his head to kiss Logan's temple. "Okay, love. I just didn't want to assume you'd be okay with it. You're not responsible for my crazy. Maybe we can... put something in front of the door that'll rattle if I move it? Just to be sure?" He cleared his throat. "One of my foster moms used to tie my ankle to the bedframe." He shook his head. "Didn't like that."

\------

Logan relaxed when Anders agreed, moving to rub his back with one of his big hands. "Yes, something rattly. That's a good idea. We can do that."

"Responsible, no, but I think we talked about taking care of each other, love, and I want to do that, and this is part of it. You don't have to face any of this alone." He brought one hand up to smooth back Anders' hair and cup his cheek. "I love you." He swallowed, smiled with one side of his mouth. "In case you, you know, forgot while you were busy running around setting fire to things."

At the mention of his foster mom, however, Logan scowled and gripped him tighter. "Well, we won't be doing _that_ ," he said, sounding appalled and a little angry and overprotective. A muscle twitched in his jaw.

\------

Anders flushed slightly at Logan's declarations. "Well, I was gone all of an hour. You never know..." He nuzzled into Logan's cheek and then shrugged a little. 

"It wasn't like she tied me down. Just a long string that would tug. But it wasn't... a great way to wake up." It had been frankly terrifying, an element added to already bad dreams, of not being able to escape, of some horrible monster dragging him back or down. He usually woke up screaming at that house, which he wasn't sure was better than in the back yard trying to climb the fence. 

"Are you ready to get back in bed? Or do you want to go see about finding fresh clothes and having a bath first?" He kissed the corner of Logan's mouth and then drew back, smiling faintly. He was tired. He looked tired probably. But the idea of being wet and naked and warm wasn't unappealing at all.

\------

Logan huffed indignantly. "No, I imagine not." What kind of person tied a child to a bed anyways? It was just cruel. 

He shook his head and pressed after Anders to kiss him back, lightly. He squeezed his hand against his back. "Bath sounds good. We were kind of sweaty and sticky last night." He smirked. "Being clean would be nice. What do you think?"

\------

Anders nodded. "I'd like to get the pond off me as well, before you kiss any more of my parts." His eyes twinkled a little, his smile turning flirty and sly. 

"Do you remember the way, or should I grab the map?" He nodded toward the journal on the table that they still hadn't looked through.

\------

Logan laughed at him, leaning forward to kiss his nose. "Mm. No more pond. All right." He glanced at the journal, shrugged, and then rattled off the sequence of hallways and stairs that led to the baths with a crooked smile. "Yeah, I remember."

"Should we dig out some fresh clothes before we go?" He eyed the wardrobes hopefully, but seemed loathe to move that way or let go of Anders.

\------

Anders grinned, shaking his head at Logan. "I always thought you wrote all those directions in game down. You just remember that sort of thing, do you?" He drew away enough to tug Logan toward the wardrobes. 

"And yes, clean clothes sounds better than walking back in dirty things. Or wet ones if we wash them down there, I guess?" He reached to open the wardrobe, wondering what the odds were there'd be anything tall enough for either of them, or broad enough for Logan in there.

\------

Logan shrugged modestly. "I might not be book smart, really, but practical things like that are easy. And useful. I didn't really have a phone or much reliable access to a computer for a while there, so I needed to be able to get myself places on my own."

He let Anders tug him towards the wardrobe and wrinkled his nose when the first one seemed mostly full of dresses and a few shirt-pants combos obviously designed for someone with rather more curves than either of them possessed. "Maybe the other one?" He laced his fingers with Anders' and moved to that one, opening it to find a rather wide assortment of men's styles. He rummaged through the tunics and shirts with one hand, getting distracted from looking for something that might actually fit across his shoulders by some of the more elaborate belts and buckles on a few.

\------

Anders gave Logan a _look_ when he implied he wasn't smart, or book smart, or educated, or whatever the hell that nonsense was about. Anders had a good memory and plenty of books and he had no idea how they were supposed to get to the bathhouse other than down. He was too busy reminding himself of what Logan's phone number was. 

He helped dig through the second wardrobe, smirking and shaking his head. "What is it with these people and straps and buckles. Why do you need... seven belts on one tunic?" He pulled the offending item out and held it in front of himself. It was too short in the sleeves, too narrow in the shoulders, so he put it back, rolling his eyes.

\------

Logan quirked an eyebrow at Anders' look, slightly confused. It was simple fact that he wasn't book smart; too many years moving around before they finally moved to Lothering meant he had felt constantly behind in school, and eventually he'd just given up caring. It didn't mean that he wasn't smart or that he didn't know things, because he did, and he read a lot about the stuff he found interesting, but he wasn't traditionally educated in any sense of the word.

He eyed the garment in Anders' hands and snorted. "So they can frustrate their lovers, clearly. How do you even get inside that thing? Let alone take it off." Turning back to the closet, he finally found a thigh length collared shirt, deep blue, that looked like it might fit. He held it up and stretched it to see how well it would fit across his chest.

\------

The shirt was a good color with Logan's dark skin, his bright eyes. Anders smiled and nodded at it, before rummaging more. The burnt orange got a hard pass, despite the fact it would probably fit fine, but he would go blind from looking at his own arms. He finally settled on something in a russet, zigzaggy sort of pattern, threaded with a little green and gold in the embroider. It was a tunic with toggles down the front that would probably be a touch loose, but the arms were long enough and it looked kind of dashing. And there were dark green... leggings? They would be cut very snug even on him... to go with it. 

"I think I can live with this," he announced with a slight smirk.

\------

Logan had found some black pants that looked like they would fit his thighs but might be a bit loose about the waist, since his was relatively small in comparison to the width of his shoulders and the rest of his size. Still, they would do. He debated on what appeared to be a matching short surcoat, black with complicated blue and silver embroidery depicting what he thought might be snakes or dragons. Or maybe they were just really interwoven whorls of color, he really had no clue. He put the surcoat back. He could always grab it later if he wanted it. 

He took one look at the leggings, looked down at Anders' legs, and nodded vigorously. "Yes. Living. Living can be done with that. Yes." The tunic was rather sharp all on its own, but put Anders' long long legs in those leggings and Logan was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to keep his hands off him.

\------

Anders smirk widened into a knowing grin at Logan's emphatic agreement. "Alright then." He did additional rummaging in the drawers under the wardrobe and found some loose weird linen smallclothes, both a chemise type undershirt and bottoms. "These are ridiculous." But he added them to his pile. The tunic was plainly made to wear over something, and he would be desperate for clean dry shorts before too long, especially with how tightly he was going to be laced into those leggings. 

He handed a set to Logan, with a quirked eyebrow. "This is really weird. Whatever set this place up, it's like they wanted whoever showed up to have clothes? I mean, the journals for everyone is strange enough, but now just closets full of clothes in multiple sizes like a costume shop?"

\------

Logan took the underclothes with a quizzical sort of look and stuck them on top of the shirt and trousers he'd draped over his arm. He shrugged at Anders, looking a little baffled. 

"I mean...maybe that's standard castle-y welcome procedure? Have a bunch of extra clothes in the closets for the guests? Marian said this was the guest wing." He hummed. "I would say maybe some of these were occupied before the castle was brought here too, and these are the guests' clothes, but then why the different sizes? And the well-made up, unoccupied look. Beats me."

\------

"Well, there aren't any answers here." Anders slipped his feet back into his shoes and gathered the clothes back up in his arms, and then moved to follow Logan. 

"Alright then, fearless leader, lead me to the bubble baths of... um... bliss?" His eyes crinkled in the corners as he smiled, wrinkling his nose just a little at the dumb joke.

\------

Logan chuckled, holding out his hand for Anders to take and shifting the clothes over his other arm slightly so they were less likely to be dropped. 

"Right away, love," he said, with a tiny grin, trying not to stare too long at the warm gold of Anders' eyes. He tugged Anders in the proper direction, quiet for a moment, and then he looked over and said, "Your eyes crinkle when you smile, you know? It's really adorable." 

His ears reddened.

\------

There was no hesitation as Anders slipped his hand into Logan's, grin going on long enough to become foolish. Feeling anyway. He followed the tug, lengthening his stride enough to bump his shoulder into Logan's, and then blushed a bright pink at the compliment. "Adorable?" He bit his lower lip, still smiling like an idiot. "I thought we established you're the adorable one." 

The hallways of the castle were eerie and silent but it made the whole thing feel like a strange, private sanctuary for just him and Logan. It had been a relief when the other Anders and Hawke had left them alone, and he could enjoy the rush of pleasure each time Logan smiled at him without being embarrassed. Well too embarrassed. 

He was still grinning like an fool.

\------

Logan shook his head, biting the inside of his lip as he grinned. "Nah," he said. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

He was just digging himself a giant Hawke-sized grave of embarrassment, could feel heat high in his cheeks and pooling down his back, but he wasn't about to _stop_ , because Anders was adorable, and Logan was newly determined to make him smile as much as possible. He brushed against him as they walked, and counted the passageways they moved through silently until he'd found the one Marian had described. 

"I think this is it," he said finally, leading Anders down one last hall.

\------

When they entered that last passage there were steps, delicately carved, leading down into the stone foundations of the castle. The shadows were thick though, and Anders paused, balking at the dark. 

"Let me..." He released Logan's hand and raised his own palm, focusing intensely for a moment. Not fire. He didn't want fire. He wanted one of those little heatless spirit lights that seemed to be in globes all over the game. He flushed as nothing happened, and he gave Logan an embarrassed glance and closed his eyes, frowning further. 

What had Anders said? If he stopped fighting with it the magic would uncoil. He was so worried about doing it wrong now that it was no longer coming with the instinctive rush that it had at first. He could do this though. He _could_. 

He really didn't want to go down into the dark. He reached again for his magic and this time there was a little pop followed by a tinkling chime and when he opened his eyes a pair of small wisps bloomed above his hand, shifting spheres of blue and gold. "Ah!" his frown broke into a pleased grin that quieted when he shot Logan a shy, proud smile.

\------

Logan pressed in close to Anders when he frowned and let go of his hand, letting their shoulders brush. Not for himself - though perhaps a little, because touching. He didn't mind the dark at all, but it did seem to bother Anders, so a little closeness couldn't hurt. He watched Anders closely as he concentrated, giving him a small encouraging smile when he looked embarrassed.

When the wisps danced above Anders' palm, Logan reached out and stopped just shy of touching one. He smiled warmly. "They're so pretty. How do you-" He cocked his head and held out his own hand. It wasn't a spell he remembered doing in the game, but it couldn't be that different from the kinds of things he'd done with light and heat already, could it? Or, well, minus the heat. He wrinkled up his nose and focused, reaching for the magic in his core, feeling around its edges, and tried to pull some up from his middle towards his arm and his palm and then _will_ the rush of power into something bright and harmless. At first, nothing, and then there was another wisp in the air, this one silver with hints of red mixed in, and the faint scent of...those little red Hot Tamales candies? 

Well, that was weird.

\------

The wisps that Anders conjured danced of their own accord, swirling around the one that Logan had made. He huffed a laugh and then sniffed more deeply, looking puzzled. "Did you... make a cinnamon scented candle into a wisp, Logan?" He looked both kind of appalled and impressed even while he started laughing. "What you couldn't quite manage Mountain Lodge? Ooh, maybe I can do Man Town!" 

He snorted and laughed louder, leaning into Logan as if he was going to fall over, and wrapped his arm through his, hugging it and hiding his face against his shoulder. "You're the best thing. Ever. In the entire history of all the universes."

\------

Logan covered his mouth with his hand when Anders started laughed. "It wasn't intentional!" he pulled his fingers away to protest, loudly. "I didn't..." he narrowed his eyes at his wisp where it trembled and shifted forward and had the audacity to look rather smug as the other two wisps spun around it. Which was ridiculous, wasn't it? He was anthropomorphizing lights now. Great. 

He shook his head at Anders, a big smile on his face, and leaned in and kissed Anders' brow, a series of quick pecks, one after the other. "All the universe? That is rather a lot to live up to, love. I am, after all, not some Champion in ours. Just Hawke."

He led them down the steps, their summoned wisps fluttering on ahead of them and lighting their path. He wasn't sure exactly what Marian, or...any of these other rumored Hawkes...had done to deserve being called 'Champion,' as the older Anders had called her earlier, but it sounded important. Which Logan wasn't, not in their world, and he'd never really needed to be. Most all he could ever remember wanting was just to be happy. He looked at Anders again, the sharp line of his nose and warm glow of his eyes drawn into focus by the shifting play of light from the wisps, and hummed thoughtfully. Well. Maybe being just Hawke in his world was all he wanted, anyways.

\------

"Well, being a Champion apparently gets you sent to the Fade to fight demons and die alone so maybe we'll keep you just Hawke, hmm?" Anders looked at Logan with an intense, protective gleam in his eyes, as they walked the final flight of steps down into the bathhouse. 

Bathhouse was a weird word for it in retrospect. It was a cave, warm and full of steam, and the slight scent of sulfur. There were pillars carved along the walls and as if they knew what to do, the little wisps circled the room, calling warm golden glows to lamps set in sconces in each of the pillars. There were two pools, both of them set in the floor, apparently fed by hot spring or magic, with a long, sheer curtain strung between them. 

There were baskets that had towels and soaps inside, oils and creams. "This is fancy," Anders said softly. "I was sort of expecting big wooden tubs with water that hadn't been changed in a week." At the far side was a grate on the floor and above it was some kind of pipe apparatus that looked sort of like a gravity driven shower head.

\------

Logan smiled at him, blue eyes soft, their color appearing paler in the low light. He squeezed Anders' arm. "That sounds good to me, love."

He looked around the room - cave, rather - and hummed. "Honestly, you say the word 'bathhouse' and I was expecting something rather more Romanesque. Big fancy pools and mosaics, or some such. This is better. Much more homey."

He tugged Anders towards the baskets of soaps and oils, running his fingers over a few and then lifting a bluish colored soap in the shape of a rose to smell it.

\------

Anders tossed his bundle of clothes down on one of the benches near the counter with the toiletries, and then wrapped his arms around Logan from behind, burying his nose in the nape of his neck. "Let me guess? Roses?" he asked with a grin.

He gave Logan's neck a soft, lingering kiss and then let him go, moving to a pick through the basket. "What kind of thing do you normally like to smell like?" He sniffed a pale orange bar and pursed his lips at the warm sandalwood and spice. He offered it to Logan with a quirk of his eyebrow.

\------

Logan followed suit, dumping his clothes next to Anders' and leaning back into Anders' touch, his arms wrapping atop his. "Mm. Very strong roses." He wrinkled his nose and laughed. "It's rather old lady. Reminds me of this one employer I had. She kept a bowl of rose smelling soaps in different shapes on the back of the toilet in the main bath. Never used any of them, though, to my knowledge." 

He dropped the rose back into the bowl and took the orange soap when Anders offered it, letting his fingers brush against Anders' more than strictly necessary. He brought it to his nose and grinned. "Very nice. Hmm, maybe a bit spicy for me. Um..." He turned back to rummage some more and eventually came up with a forest green, slightly speckled bar, one that smelled of pine with hints of citrus. "Ah, this one." He held it out.

\------

Anders took the bar, and Logan's hand, and turned his arm over. He rubbed the soap gently on the inside of Logan's wrist and then buried his nose there and inhaled the scent of his skin and the soap together. When he looked up his smile was on the hungry side of warm. "Yes," he agreed emphatically. 

He gave himself a slight shake, as if breaking out of a spell, and tripped his finger over a few more bars. "I'm surprised you didn't pick something that smells like cinnamon gum," he grinned sidelong, eyes doing that twinkling and crinkling thing that Logan had complimented him on.

\------

Logan let him turn his arm over, his fingers curling in just a touch, his eyes tracking Anders' fingers and then darting up to his eyes when Anders looked up. He wet his lips and said, somewhat breathlessly, "All right then."

"Just because I may like cinnamon doesn't mean I want to _smell_ like cinnamon, love." He laughed quietly, wrinkling his nose, and then stopped to admire again how soft and warm and happy Anders looked when his eyes were doing that crinkling thing. He rubbed his neck and smiled fondly at him.

\------

Anders picked up something that had a warm, woodsy, musk to it. He couldn't quite name it, like the best parts of woodsmoke, with mint as a higher note. He rubbed it into his wrist the same way he'd done to Logan and then smelled his own skin. It was good, but it wasn't the same as just knowing that Logan's was right for him. 

He bit his lip. "Do you want to pick something for me? Or I could just use that one." He nodded to the soap Logan had picked.

\------

Logan had already found a bar that smelled of cedar and quince, with just a hint of almonds in the lower notes. He took Anders hand and pressed his nose to his skin where he'd rubbed the soap, humming in appreciation. "That one's nice. Try this one though." He took Anders' other wrist and rubbed some of the soap he'd found in gently.

\------

Anders smelled this wrist, smiling softly and then held it out for Logan. "You?" It was a perfect balance of warm and sharp and sweet, he thought, but he wanted to make sure Logan thought so too. 

Mostly though he really wanted to get out of his itchy pond clothes and into the hot water. He watched Logan's face hopefully.

\------

Logan smelled the cedar scent on Anders' skin and his lips curved. He looked up at Anders through his lashes. "Yeah. I like that one." He said, voice soft and warm, rubbing his thumb along Anders' wrist.

"Okay. Bath." He reluctantly let Anders go and moved to grab two towels from another basket.

\------

Anders took the soaps over next to the nearer pool and toed off his shoes, tossing them toward the bench. His eyes flicked over to Logan as he started unbuttoning his shirt slowly. He was blushing faintly even though they'd been extremely naked and extremely close just a few hours ago. It was kind of dumb to feel shy but it was new. It was all new with Logan and incredibly, impossibly special. 

Weird, sure. But _important_.

\------

Logan dropped the towels on a bench right on the edge of the pool. He glanced over at Anders just as Anders looked at him, and gave a crooked smile in return, drifting over to him. "Can I...?" Instead of reaching immediately for the buttons of Anders' shirt, he smoothed a hand up over Anders' chest and splayed his fingers over Anders' heart, thumb flicking over the nearest button. There had been not enough touching going on while Marian and the other Anders had been around. He wanted to relish the reveal of Anders' body, even if they were here mostly to really bathe.

Logan cocked his head and waited.

\------

Anders nodded, lips parting, as soon as Logan touched his chest, asked the question. "Please," he said, flushing at the way his voice broke a little, and ducked his head with a rueful smile.

He raised his hand to run up Logan's arm, to his shoulder, smoothing his hand over the strong curve of his muscle. If asked, he'd agree. Not enough touching at all, and he was more than willing to let Logan peel him out of these slightly stiff, slightly itchy pond-water clothes. 

His heart was beating palpably harder under Logan's hand, and he laughed softly. "God, Logan, I am trying so hard to be cool, but your eyes when you look at me... It's really hard to keep from throwing myself on top of you every time you stand still."

\------

Logan gave Anders an adoring look at the break in his voice and the head ducking and the blushing. He crowded in a half step closer to pick up unbuttoning the shirt where Anders had left off, the backs of his fingers brushing against the skin of Anders' chest. When he was done he smoothed both hands up Anders' bare chest and curved them over his shoulders under the open edges of the shirt, sliding it down and off. 

And then Anders said that and Logan stopped and breathed and looked at him, all wide, blue eyed adoration and boundless affection. He closed the remaining distance between them and cupped Anders' cheek in one big hand and kissed him, a deep, searching, cherishing press of his lips.

\------

Anders' breath hitched as Logan's broad, calloused hands smoothed the shirt off his shoulders and then caught his face, drawing him in. "See, exactly like that," he murmured just before Logan's lips met his.

He melted into the kiss, one of his hands clutching the front of Logan's shirt near the hem, the other rising to his neck, thumb on his pulse. The thrumming of Logan's heartbeat under his hand made Anders feel warm and real and safe in a way that he hadn't exactly (except when Logan had first caught him in his arms) since he'd woke in the garden, trying to fight off the landscaping.

\------

Logan skimmed his thumb over Anders' cheekbone as they kissed, his eyes closing. Since that first moment he'd grabbed Anders' hand on the battlements, his need to touch and be touched had been a near-constant thrumming under his skin, as though all the wanting for Anders he'd done all these months was determined to finally make itself heard. He didn't know how he had denied it to himself for so long. He wanted Anders badly enough that he'd...actually felt mostly comfortable wrapping Anders up in his arms in front of Marian and the other Anders, and he couldn't say if it might scare him more with other people, but that was huge. That was actually the first time he'd ever shown affection for a man he loved in front of anyone else and instead of fear all he felt was free, all he wanted was _more_.

"So throw yourself on top of me," he rumbled, pulling back to smooth Anders' hair away from his face and marvel at having this.

He dropped to his knees and started to unbutton Anders' pants.

\------

Anders breath caught as Logan dropped to his knees, lips parted and moist from the kissing. He ran his fingertips against Logan's scalp and smiled, lopsided and coy. "What now? Draped over the top of your head like a hat?" 

He shimmied his hips a little as Logan drew his pants open, pushed them down over his hips. He sucked in a breath, his flat stomach coving slightly as he stepped out of his pants with Logan's assistance.

\------

Logan arched a brow and smiled up at him. "If you must."

He put a hand on Anders calf to cue him to lift his foot so he could pull off his sock, and then did the same for the other. Then he straightened and reached for Anders' shorts, looking up to meet Anders' eyes again. He kissed just below Anders' navel, right at the start of the hair there, and then put his hands on Anders' hips, hooking his thumbs in the waistband and tugging off his shorts.

\------

Anders let Logan strip his socks, smirking slightly. It was definitely the sexiest sock removal he'd ever been party to, and he was still feeling like an awkward, gangly mess, too many knees entirely, which was weird since he just had the normal number. 

When Logan's eyes ticked up to meet his and his mouth pressed against Anders belly the rambling in his brain stopped, and he gasped softly. His cock had taken an interest around the time Logan had asked to unbutton his shirt, and was now heavy and half-hard against his thigh as the underwear skimmed down his hips and he stepped out of them as well. It twitched as he looked down at Logan and he whimpered softly. 

"God, Logan, you're..." He let out a heavy breath. "I love you." He swallowed, eyes slightly glassy all of a sudden. "You're amazing and I love you and you love me and that's fucking unbelievable."

\------

Logan skimmed his hands up and down Anders' thighs, and then rocked back on his heels and stood easily. He cradled Anders' face in both hands and kissed him gently. "Yeah. Yeah, love, it's - god, it's like a dream isn't it? God. I love you." He felt like his heart was bursting with it.

\------

Anders wrapped his arms over Logan's shoulders and around his neck, hugging him almost strangling tight for a moment. "Okay. Impulse to die if I didn't hug you under control. Now." He loosened his grip and slid his hands down Logan's chest to his waist and started peeling up his shirt. "You too, sweetheart." 

It didn't seem sustainable, how intense everything was right now, but he couldn't imagine how it would ever feel _less_. Maybe different, sure, as they learned each others' quirks and stopped being constantly surprised the other was really there... 

But right now, it was almost dizzying.

\------

Logan let out a choked off noise as Anders throws his arms around him, but objecting was the farthest thing from his mind. He laughed lightly when Anders let him go and couldn't seem to stop smiling at him. "Oh, good, I'm not the only one with those kinds of impulses," he only half joked. 

He lifted his arms so Anders could guide his t-shirt off over his head, and then stepped on the heel of one of his socks so he could work those off in the meantime. It was already kind of a relief to be out of the dirty, somewhat sweaty shirt he'd been wearing for what, like two days? And even more amazing to feel Anders fingers on his skin. He could not remember the last time being clean sounded so wonderful; maybe just being near Anders made everything that much heightened and if so, Logan wasn't quite sure how he'd lived without him up till this point.

\------

When the shirt was off, Anders tossed it back into the pile of discarded clothes and dipped his head to kiss the top of Logan's shoulder, his collarbone, down into the divot at the bottom of his throat as his hands worked on unfastening the jeans pushing them down. He may have let his hands wander to Logan's ass as he drew his briefs down as well, palms smoothing and skating over warm skin, leaning and mapping the different ways Logan responded to these kinds of touches. 

And he was responsive. Hungry. It made Anders feel powerful to be able to draw out little shivers and twitches with the lightest brushes of his fingers, the small sounds Logan made without realizing. He was on one knee, working the rest of Logan's clothes off one foot at a time, while his other hand traced his blunt nails lightly along the back of his knee, just light enough to tickle a little.

\------

Logan was a loose-limbed mess of warmth and quiet sighs under Anders' hands, his cock half-hard against his thigh. He was relaxed enough not to be paying very much attention to where Anders' hand was going until he touched his nails lightly to the back of Logan's knee and then Logan shied away and kicked out simultaneously, a laugh bordering on a shriek spilling out of him. He ended up kicking Anders in the ribs, not terribly hard, and covering his mouth with one hand to squelch further laughter. 

"Oh god," he wheezed, bending in half to touch a hand to Anders' hair. "Sorry, I'm sorry love, are you okay? Don't - not the backs of the knees." He shook his head, swallowing another laugh.

\------

Well, he hadn't been expecting that. The air whooshed out of Anders in surprise, not from the kick itself, more of a smack than any deep impact. He rubbed his side, expression struggling to settle between laughter and reproachful. "Ow," he complained, mouth still quirking. "I'm never touching you anywhere underneath your bellybutton ever again, just to be safe." 

Then he stuck his tongue out and stood up. "I guess you're a little ticklish, then? Anywhere else specific I should avoid lavishing my adoring attention?" He wrinkled his nose, hand catching Logan's and dragging him toward the bathing pool.

\------

"Ever?" Logan sounded especially pitiful at the prospect, even if Anders was joking. He fixed sad blue eyes on Anders' face and stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. 

He let himself he dragged towards the pool, and said, "No, really, just the one spot. I'm not actually that ticklish, it's just my knees. I promise? Carver is a merciless tickler. I really don't have any other weak spots, I swear." He gave Anders a beseeching sort of look.

\------

Even in jest Logan's puppy eyes were heart-breaking. Anders wrapped his arms around him before stepping down into the water, bringing them flush from chest to knees. "Hmm. Well, I could just use parts other than my hands." He squeezed Logan and arched in a slow roll, accentuating how much bare skin they had pressed together now. "Or, I could just take my time to make sure there aren't any finishing-move-rib-kicking death spots." He let one of his hands trail down Logan's back to pause at his waist, eyebrows arching and smile turning teasing.

\------

Logan gasped when Anders pulled them flush together. "Mm. I mean. Whichever you prefer, love." He wrapped his arms around Anders' back, increasing the contact between them, and then kissed him sweetly. He tilted his head when he pulled back. "There really aren't any other spots, though."

He brought one hand around to splay gently against Anders' side where he had kicked him. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be a healer now, darlin'?"

\------

Anders chased the kiss for a second peck when Logan pulled back, then shook his head, lips pursing with mock-affront. "Now you sound like Fenris. 'Aren't you supposed to be a healer?'" He huffed and drew away. The place Logan's foot had contacted him wasn't likely to bruise even, though it looked just a little red from the smack. 

He tugged Logan toward the steps down into the pool. "I guess maybe I could use my healing powers and my incredible knowledge of anatomy to find more ticklish spots, but that seems counterproductive. I don't really want you to kick me." He tossed Logan a tart look, though his eyes twinkled, and then he sucked in a breath at the _heat_ of the water as he stepped down onto the first step.

\------

Logan bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing at the comparison and Anders' mock-indignance. "Sorry, love," he apologized, not able to keep his amusement from his voice. "I will try not to kick you again," he added, and there was actual contrition in his tone then. 

Both brows lifted when Anders inhaled sharply at the water. "It can't be that ba-- oh." He followed Anders down to the first step and stopped talking very suddenly, then let out a breathy laugh and leaned into Anders. "Oh."

\------

"Well, just have all my meals delivered here, because I'm never leaving." Anders grinned as he stepped down further into the water, dragging Logan with him, eyes going half lidded with pleasure. 

Standing on the bottom of the pool it came up to just to the line of his hipbones and he eagerly sank down to his knees, submersed up to his chin. He sighed a deep, pleasurable sound, as he relaxed all those stupid, stubborn muscles that had been in knots since he'd woken up in the garden. He pulled on Logan's hand, inching toward him on his knees. 

"So, I want to kiss you now, but I'm not standing up, so either sit or I'm going to find someplace I can reach." He Logan's crotch a flick of a glance and then turned his smiling eyes up to meet his gaze.

\------

Logan smirked at him, one brow raising just a touch. "Subtle. Very subtle." Instead of sinking down next to Anders, however, he looked around them. "I'm betting there's..." He took a few steps towards the side of the pool, water sluicing about his waist. "Ah." There was a bench carved into the stone of the pool's side and Logan sank down with a sigh, the water falling about mid-chest. 

He held out a hand towards Anders. "C'mere." It came out more of an invitation than a demand, his blue eyes soft and hopeful on Anders' face. "We'll be more comfortable over here, I think."

\------

"Subtle. What did subtle get us? Months and months of pining and not enough sleep because neither of us wanted to log off voice chat first." Anders shook his head, and then grinned at Logan's invitation. He pawed along the bottom to where Logan had found a seat and slid up into his lap, lanky legs straddling him and pressed close to his hips on either side. 

He looped his arms around Logan's neck and leaned close for the promised kissing, a trail of tiny busses along Logan's brow and then his nose, to his cheekbones and down his jawline to his chin. He stopped with the light pecks, leaning just far enough back to meet Logan's gaze. "You're right. Much more comfortable."

\------

Logan hummed, one side of his mouth tugging downwards. "Good point." He sighed faintly, looking actually a little distressed by the reminder, but only for a moment, and then he had a lapful of Anders and he forgot any kind of melancholy over lost opportunities in favor of folding his arms around his boyfriend. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back under Anders' gentle kisses, only opening them again when Anders leaned back. 

He cupped the back of Anders' head and smiled, leaning forward to press their lips together in a gentle, unhurried kiss.

\------

Anders stroked his lips against Logan's slowly, making a soft noise of pleasure as he tipped his head to slot his mouth and kiss deeper. He worked his fingers at the base of Logan's neck, rubbing gently. When he pulled back from the kiss he murmured, "I mean, if you want subtle, I can do subtle." He trailed his fingertips down the line of Logan's spine, up behind the shell of his ear.

\------

The gentle caresses, tender nuzzling, without heat or urgency made Anders melt a little further into Logan's chest, resting his head on his shoulder, face turned in toward his neck. "Having never been the kid that ever got everything on his Christmas list, I'm kind of unfamiliar with this sensation." He kissed Logan's neck, warm, open-mouthed, once, and again, and then settled again. "I don't know what else I'm even allowed to want. It seems... greedy?"

\------

Logan made an indignant noise in his throat and moved to brush his lips over Anders' brow, a little overwhelmed by the intense urge to shower Anders with affection and literally everything he could ever possibly want at the concession. "So be greedy," he murmured. "I don't mind."

\------

Anders laughed softly and nuzzled closer to Logan, a hand sliding down his chest into the hot water, splaying against his ribs, sliding around to his back. "I want to eat waffles with you at this ridiculous stand in Lowtown. I want to kiss you goodnight a ten thousand times. I want to wake up next to you and not half-naked in the garden, running from shadows. I want to make love with you and get to know you forwards and backwards and inside out." He lifted his head to kiss Logan, fierce and brief. "I want to teach you how to say my real name. It's complicated. It could take years of your life."

\------

Logan got this incredibly shy sort of delighted smile on his face as Anders spoke, his hand dropping to just grip gently at Anders' shoulder. And then he was very nearly crying, blue eyes bright with unshed tears as Anders went on, fingers tightening on his slim shoulder. He kissed him back, eager, earnest.

There was a quiet splash as he pulled his other hand out of the water and away from Anders' back to rub the back of it futilely under his nose. He laughed quietly. "Those are years I want to give you, love." His voice was raw, eyes still wet.

\------

"Logan?" Anders looked worried at the tears he'd caused, his hands rising to cup Logan's face gently. He was flushed from the heat of the water and it hid the embarrassed blush that rose. "Too much?" he asked with a little quirk to his lips. "You probably wanted dirty talk, didn't you?" His eyes were shimmering with tears now too even as he tried to tease lightly. He hadn't expected to affect Logan so deeply, at least not in a good way.

Anders knew his intensity could make people run, and he should've temporized. Maybe said one of those things? And, Jesus, not the name thing. That was heavy shit. 

He leaned in to kiss Logan, to mask his uncertainty with lingering mouth and stroking tongue.

\------

"No, I-" Logan shook his head slightly and pressed the heel of his hand to his eye. He blew out a breath from between closed lips and then Anders was kissing him. Logan kissed back for a moment, and then when Anders' tongue stroked against his lips, Logan pulled back instead of opening to him, his hand a gentle grip in Anders' hair. 

"It's not too much, love," he said, his hand drifting around to cup Anders' jaw when he could look him in the eye. "If - if anything, it's just enough. I - I want all of that. And more. I want - god. I want to hold you when your having nightmares and poke fun at your ridiculously adorable bedhead in the mornings. I want you to meet my dog. I want to hold your hand in front of people and not be afraid of it anymore. I want - I just, I want so much, Anders. So much."

\------

Anders let Logan pull away and guide his face so that their eyes met. He smiled, foolish and soft, as Logan spoke and he huffed a shaky, tearful laugh. "We are impossible mushy. Saps of the worst order. Isabela would be so ashamed of us naked in a bath, me in your lap, and we're crying about holding hands in public." He tipped his head to press his jaw more firmly into Logan's hand. 

"And your dog is some kind of giant behemoth, right? What if he hates me?" Anders looked genuinely concerned about that. If Logan's family were assholes about it, he'd fight them, but if his dog rejected him? How could he ask Logan to choose him over his dog?

\------

Logan chuckled. "I think Isabela would probably poke fun no matter what kind of relationship we found ourselves in, love." He rubbed his fingers gently over Anders' jaw and cheek.

"Maelstrom?" He looked amused, head tilting, brows furrowing. "It's...not like he's a Saint Bernard, or anything. He's big for a mutt, I'll give you that. But hate you? Nah. I'm pretty sure the only person he's ever disliked was my ex, which, in retrospect...yeah." He cleared his throat. "Um, no he's basically a giant preternaturally intelligent teddy bear. You don't have anything to worry about, there."

\------

Anders tipped his face into the caress along his jaw, sighing happily at Logan's attention - and also his seeming unconcern about Isabela's teasing. 

He straightened a little when Logan stumbled over mention of his ex, and watched him for a moment. He still hadn't heard this story, though it was plainly important. He was waiting for Logan to want to tell it. When he moved back to the topic of his dog, Anders leaned in and kissed him sweetly, if briefly. "I think I'm going to worry less, generally, with you around, Logan."

\------

 _That_ made Logan smile, big and warm and happy. He brushed a calloused thumb over Anders' lips when he pulled back from the kiss. "Good. That's good, love," he said, unable to keep the pleasure from his voice, the slight shift of his body under Anders' anchoring weight that would have almost been a bounce of happiness had he not had Anders in his lap. He leaned in to kiss Anders again.

When he pulled back, he tilted his head, studying the warm amber of Anders' eyes for a moment. He kept dancing around the topic of Rowan, and it wasn't really fair, for one thing, since Anders had told him about his dad and his foster homes. And the 'let's not talk about our exes' rule had always struck him as incredibly dumb. Logan wanted to let Anders into all the parts of his life, and that - well, it had been a long time ago now, but it was one of them. He licked his lips. "Do you - do you want to hear about my ex? Rowan."

\------

Whatever Anders had done to make Logan smile like that, Anders wanted to do it about a hundred times a day. He welcomed the kiss, his hands on Logan's cheeks pulling him close until he broke away. 

Anders wet his lips, mirroring Logan's gesture, and then nodded slowly. "If you want to talk about him, love. You don't have to, but yeah. If you... if you want me to know, I want to know." He leaned in to kiss him softly on the mouth, then the forehead and slipped off his lap to settle next to him. "He seems... important."

\------

Logan wrapped an arm around Anders' waist when he settled next to him and took one of his hands with his other hand, twining their fingers together in the water. "I guess - yeah, I guess you could say that. It seems like calling him important is giving him too much credit? But. We were together for a year, and he's the only other boyfriend I've had, so."

He chewed on his lip for a moment, trying to figure out where to start. "I left home when I was seventeen, I think I mentioned? Lots of reasons. And then I just kind of...wandered for a while. I've got a bit of wanderlust, I think you'll discover. When I was nineteen, I got a job on this farm. Was just supposed to be temporary at first; I got hired for the harvest, but then some of their permanent guys left and they had openings, and the boss liked me well enough. I wasn't going to stay. I didn't usually stay on at those kind of places. It was usually - help pick the corn, harvest the apples, drive the harvester, whatever - then move on to a city for the winter. That time, though, there was this guy. He worked at a ranch not too many miles away. Herding cattle, not farming. Which, at the time I found incredibly hot. I didn't - I don't - proposition guys? But we were in town drinking one night, and there he was, boots, cowboy hat, all that tanned skin. He was very persuasive. And I'd never..." he frowned, a soft sort of expression, not quite able to find the words he was looking for.

"Well. So, anyways, we got together, so when there were openings, I stayed on, just to be close to him, you know? But we weren't open about it. The guys I worked with...not the kind of guys you want to be advertising 'hey, by the way, I'm gay' around. I didn't think the guys he worked with were much better. And it was good, for a while, even if we were sneaking around like teenagers half the time and pretending we were just good friends the other half."

\------

Anders slid his arm over Logan's shoulders as he twined their other hands together so that he could run his fingers over his opposite shoulder while he talked. He didn't interrupt, listening intently, nodding when Logan's voice turned querying, and making small noises of understand when he said they weren't out. 

He curled his arm up and ran damp fingers over his close, tight curls, and said softly, "That sounds intense for your first relationship." Then he waited quietly for Logan to continue, because that all made sense, but it was obvious at some point the story got hard and he pressed just a little closer.

\------

Logan actually looked amused at that, his lips pursing in an attempt not to smile. "At what point did you look at me and think I wasn't an intense sort of person, love?" He leaned in and brushed his lips against Anders' temple.

When he settled back against Anders' arm, his smile faded. He curled his arm more securely around Anders' waist and pressed him closer before he continued. "After a while, the fact we weren't out started to bother him. Just little comments at first, how he wished things could be different, and I didn't blame him for that, because I did too. And he'd been out before, as a teenager, and I hadn't, so I just - I just felt like I was holding him back when he kept pressing."

His voice got frustrated, old irritation bleeding in. "I told him, I said I didn't want to come out, not there. He said he was okay with it at first, but then he kept acting like it wasn't okay. I don't know, just, getting kind of...resentful and - and unhappy. Eventually he stopped saying it was okay, and just started saying it was what it was. I mean, he knew my reasons? And he'd agreed they were good ones. But..." he shrugged.

"After that had gone on for a while, there was a barn dance at a neighboring farm one night, and of course everyone in at _least_ a twenty-five mile radius was there. When I walked in, I found him in some other guy's lap. With his tongue in his mouth. I think..." he blew out a breath. "I think it was his way of making a point? That nobody would give a shit what we did. He was right and he was wrong about that. Weirdly enough his guys, the ones he worked with, didn't seem to care? But mine. Heh. The things they said on our way back that night. And the next day. And...then it was 'aren't you friends with that guy, Logan? Did you _know_?'. I didn't - I couldn't - there I was, playing dumb, acting like it wasn't my _boyfriend_ they were shit-talking, my cheating, asshole of a boyfriend. God." He shook his head, leaning into Anders.

\------

Anders grimaced as the story progressed, kissing Logan's temple as he tensed and leaned closer. It wasn't an unfamiliar story, but it still broke his heart that the first person Logan, with his huge heart and his fierce loyalty and protectiveness, had trusted and loved had betrayed him so completely...

He disentangled his fingers from Logan's and turned to wrap his arms around him completely, kissing his forehead and then resting his against it. "You didn't deserve that. That is some grade-A assholery, Logan." He stroked the back of Logan's neck, watching him with concern. This was where his defensiveness about being in the closet came from, at least partly. It made a lot of sense.

\------

Logan let out a soft sigh when Anders wrapped his arms around him, relaxing into the embrace. He closed his eyes briefly. "I know," he murmured, a little surprised by how easily the story had come out of him, all things considered. "I mean, I didn't know back then, exactly - I knew it was on him but I still felt like...like it was my fault, somehow. But then he wanted me back and I just, I couldn't. I left pretty quickly."

He touched Anders' cheek, gently. "I never told anybody except Varric that story." His blue eyes were soft and open on Anders' face. "That's...weird. It hasn't bothered me, exactly, for a long time, but I expected that to be more difficult to talk about." He laughed, a quiet, surprised, happy sound.

\------

"I'm a pretty good listener. Maybe not Varric caliber, but..." Anders trailed off with a wry smile, and then leaned in to kiss Logan, lingering, melting sweetness in it. When he pulled back he sighed, smiling warmly. "Thank you, love, for trusting me with it." He ran a hand over Logan's chest, letting his palm press over his heart.

\------

Logan kissed him back, his fingers brushing over Anders' cheek, tenderness and bubbling happiness in the press of his lips. "Of course," he said, finding the idea of _not_ trusting Anders with this, and so much more, really quite unthinkable actually. He fitted his hand over the one Anders had over his heart, relishing the firm press of those long fingers. 

"You're a much a better listener, in fact, love. Less narration and fewer sarcastic asides." He smiled.

\------

"Hawke murmured goopily," Anders rumbled in a terrible approximation of Varric's accent and gravelly delivery, before snorting and giving a slight shudder. 

He leaned in close and nuzzled into the crook of his neck. "Maybe I shouldn't do that when I'm sitting naked in a hot tub with you. Creepy."

\------

Logan narrowed his eyes and then shuddered as well, laughing, one hand sweeping up from Anders' back to place a damp palm at the back of Anders' head. "Please don't," he practically giggled, brushing his nose over Anders' hair and pressing him closer.

\------

Anders started laughing as well, and shook his head. "Never again, I promise." He started kissing the skin of Logan's neck, from the curve of his jaw down to his collarbone, before sitting back and smiling softly at him. "I'm pretty sure you could ask me for anything right now."

\------

Logan hummed in pleasure under Anders' kisses, his head lolling back against the stone behind him to expose the curve of his neck. "Anything?" He lifted Anders' hand from his chest and turned it so that he could kiss the inside of Anders' wrist. Both brows raised slightly, Logan's lips curving up in something too warm and amused to be a smirk, though it was close. "That's rather an open invitation, love."

\------

Anders laughed softly at the near-smirk, eyes turning heavy-lidded as Logan kissed the inside of his wrist. "Is it? Hmm, how careless." He leaned forward to nibble at Logan's ear. "You'd better make your request then, put me out of misery of wondering. What would you like, love?" he purred against the shell of Logan's ear, nose brushing against the hair over his temple.

\------

Right, so the ear-nibbling was definitely distracting. Logan wet his lips and tried to focus beyond Anders' breath over his ear. "I..." It came out rather perplexed.

That was the question, wasn't it? Except Logan had told himself for so long that he could never have what he wanted that this - something so simple as Anders pressed close to him, touching him, wanting him - seemed amazing. The thought of having _more_ was - it was almost beyond Logan's power to comprehend. So maybe Anders wasn't the only one who felt greedy. He tried to think back to some of those fantasies he'd had before, but those had been just fantasies, a way of distracting himself from what he really wanted, which was that life together Anders had described. A life he was offering.

Logan laughed quietly. "I - I don't...Um." There was that - thing - Anders had done with his magic before where it had almost felt like he was inside him. "I mean, at some point I would really like you to fuck me, but that's - not exactly um, pressing, here. Honestly I don't have any objections to kissing for hours? At all?" He wrinkled up his nose. "I'm sorry, I'm bad at this, I just - I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I have you at all, let alone the idea of getting to ask you for anything I can think of."

\------

The uncertainty in Logan's reply made Anders still for a moment and then he buried his face in his neck and shook his head. "I would love to fuck you at some point, but yeah." He sighed and lifted his head, smiling at him, self-deprecation in the corner of his mouth, the quirk of his brows. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, love. How about I wash your back?" 

Before Logan could object he slid out of his arms to glide through the water toward the opposite edge where they'd left their soaps and washrags in a discarded pile near their clothes. He heaved himself half out of the water to reach them, and then returned shortly. 

He needed to get a handle on this innuendo thing. His last few relationships had been decidedly physical, and while they hadn't been _bad_ they hadn't been _great_ for much other than making him feel like he gave really great head. He needed the reminder that things were going to be slower, and sweeter with Logan, and to stop expecting every kiss to turn into a proposition. 

He smiled as he set the soap Logan had picked for him on the edge near Logan's shoulder and wet the other bar and the cloth, starting to work the rag into a lather as he leaned in to kiss Logan briefly, warmly, on the mouth.

\------

Logan started to object but then Anders was already halfway across the pool. He wrinkled his nose and shifted so he could put his elbows on the wall behind him - a bit of an awkward angle, with his arms rather high, but it worked, for the moment. "I don't think uncomfortable is the word I would use," he finally said, pitching his voice slightly higher to carry and watching Anders heave himself up out of the water with a twitch of a smile of appreciation. 

"More like...genuine surprise I don't have a better answer for you," he added as Anders returned. "I don't know. Ask me again later, love, I'll probably remember how this dance works." His smile this time was a touch self-deprecating, but there was amusement that seemed to be aimed mostly at himself in his clear blue eyes. 

He kissed Anders back with fondness, his elbows sliding off the wall so they could dip beneath the water and rest at Anders' waist. "But yes, by all means, wash my back, and then I'll get yours."

\------

Anders smile had the edges of a smirk to it as he started with Logan's chest, since it was... well it was right there, and there was no reason not to appreciate it. He smoothed the sudsy cloth over his broad muscles with a hum of pleasure. "I think you've got the important steps down." 

The scent of the soap was decidedly pleasant and Anders washed up over Logan's shoulders, the hollow of his throat, as he talked. "I'm used to being... _on_ , I guess." His eyes were cast down and he glanced up at Logan with a little frown. "I think I forgot how to do this right... Not a hookup, not a booty-call, not trying to impress someone who's too good for me. I mean, you are, but that's not the point. I just... if I'm too much or two forward, please let me know." He chewed on the inside of his lower lip, making the curve of it pout out slightly.

\------

Logan sat forward on the edge of the bench and spread his knees so Anders could stand between them, getting a little frown as Anders spoke. "First of all," he rumbled, inhaling appreciatively at the warm pleasure shivering up his skin at Anders' ministrations. His nose twitched. "I'm _not_ too good for you, love." His thumbs skimmed over Anders' sharp hipbones and then he lifted a dripping hand to run his thumb over Anders' bottom lip. "Secondly." He tilted his head at an angle as Anders ran the cloth over his throat. "Obviously I would tell you if I was uncomfortable, but I have a hard time imagining you ever being - _too much_ , Anders. It's not like I don't know you, all right? I fell in love with you for your intensity as much as anything. I _like_ that about you."

\------

Anders watched his hands, as much out of pleasure of the glistening of soap suds across Logan's skin, as out of the odd emotional shyness that he was feeling as he listened to Logan talk. His eyes came up when the thumb dragged across his lower lip, before flicking back down, starting to blush. He nodded a little, looked up through his lashes, mouth quirking in a wry smile. 

"I know. It's just different when I was flirting with everyone to hide how much I liked you. This is... it's just us, isn't it? And... God, I don't want to screw it up." He rinsed the cloth, the cloud of soapy residue swirling away into the water where it drained, constantly replenished with fresh hot from some deep spring. He used the wet rag to rinse the soap from Logan's skin, just as careful as he'd been in the washing. 

And he was pretty sure that Logan was too good for him. Pretty much everyone in the guild was half in love with him. But he'd chosen Anders and he wasn't going to quibble or complain about that.

\------

Logan settled, his eyes half-closing, and tried to sort through the emotions floating hazily through him. It was a little hard to think with the heat of the water soaking into him, Anders' hands careful and gentle against his skin. Pleasure, and happiness, and even he thought a little smugness that he'd gotten Anders to blush like that. His hand drifted to rest lightly against Anders' neck, and then he realized what Anders had said. 

"Wait, that was the reason? That was about _me_?" He grinned shyly, obviously delighted with this revelation, and leaned forward to press a sloppy kiss to Anders' lips. "You're ridiculous, and I love you." He nudged Anders a little closer. "And you're not going to screw this up."

\------

The blush got brighter when Logan kissed him again, and he let him tug him closer, wrapping his arms around his neck and settling on one of his knees. "Well, yeah. I mean, do you really think I wanted tickets to Varric's gun show?" He wrinkled his nose and looked away. "I figured if I flirted with _everyone_ I could toss a few your way too and if you picked them up, it would be a sign, and if not... well that told me something too." 

He turned his face back toward Logan, and laughed softly. "And please don't jinx me with blanket statements. I could definitely still screw this up." His eyes crinkled as he smiled in amusement. 

This... was really good, warmth and affection and it felt natural and whole.

\------

"Well, no, I just figured you weren't serious about any of it," Logan admitted, sliding his arm more securely around Anders' waist. He gave a lopsided smile. "I'm really bad at casual flirting, sorry." Perhaps if he had been better at that sort of thing, he'd have been able to toss back a witty reply as quickly as Isabela and Varric usually seemed to, but the idea of...acting like his heart wasn't in his mouth every time Anders had flirted with him and just laughing back had been not only unthinkable, but actually impossible. "I was a little busy trying not to spill things all over my keyboard whenever you flirted with me." He pressed his lips together, the corners tipping down, and shrugged in a sort of self-deprecating 'oops?' expression.

He moved forward and kissed the crinkle at the corner of one of Anders' eyes quickly, then sat back, looking smug.

\------

Anders kissed Logan's temple after her sat back, nose nuzzling into the dense curls there. "I guess maybe I should've dialed it back for everyone else and given you a hope of taking me seriously?" He chuckled softly. "Hopeless idiots. You ever think the universe itself got sick of us being ridiculous separate, and oblivious, and broke all the laws of time and space just to make us quit it?" He back and ran a wet hand through his hair, grinning. "And now we can be ridiculous together."

\------

"The universe is a much kinder place than I'd come to believe, if that's the case. Which is not exactly an idea I'm opposed to." Logan squeezed him around the middle and then lifted him from his lap and stood. "Here." He settled Anders back on the bench he'd just vacated and reached for the other washrag and bar of soap. 

"I rather like the sound of that," he admitted, lathering the rag and setting the soap aside. He kissed Anders again, a brief, pleased touch, and then started washing his chest with big gentle hands.

\------

Anders' eyes widened as Logan lifted him and laughed in delight at being manhandled around like that, effortlessly with the water taking his weight. He stretched his arms out long on the edge of the pool, leaning back, letting his lower body float up a little. He ran his foot up the outside of Logan's leg, careful of his ticklish-knee-situation, and grinned as he preened under the attention. 

"Mmm. My apartment back in Darktown... the shower isn't big enough for both of us at the same time. I'm not sure if you'll fit on your own. I don't know how I'm going to live without personal bath attendant boyfriend service after this." He grinned as he tipped his head back.

\------

Logan washed the lean muscles of Anders' chest and then up to his shoulders, his eyes sweeping up over the contour of Anders' body, relaxed and wide open beneath him, with a hungry sort of appreciation. He smoothed the rag down Anders' arms, each in turn, spreading suds and the cedar-fruit-almonds scent. "I see," he laughed. "I'll have to watch out then, what with you being so easily spoiled and all."

"Or..." he smirked, coming back to Anders' middle and washing his neck and throat carefully, "That will just make it easier to spoil you." He had a sudden thought of what he could do with all that money he'd been saving for his mother if he used it for himself, for _Anders_. A small house in Hightown for Leandra, with a couple of extra bedrooms for the twins, and perhaps...perhaps a condo for himself and Anders, or even an apartment, he didn't really care, so long as it was _theirs_ and they didn't have to share it. And there was either a very large tub or a very large shower. He put the thought aside wistfully; that all depended on his mom being able to take care of herself, and some days he thought she would be fine without either him or Dad, but other days...not so much. 

"Sadly, my shower in our apartment in Lowtown isn't much better. We might both be able to fit, but it would be...very tight."

\------

Anders' eyes had gone half-lidded as Logan washed his arms and his neck, sighing in pleasure with a soft, dopey smile on his lips as he talked about spoiling him. They reopened and he looked up at Logan carefully when he talked about his Lowtown apartment, and wet his lips. 

"Well, we don't have to worry about that," he said with a gentle smile. "Not... I mean I'm not going to jump you in your family's house." Assuming Logan ever brought him around to meet them at all, that was a ways off, and being introduced as a boyfriend? Probably quite a bit further. Which was fine. His little apartment had a bed and a door that locked, and sure maybe the drug dealer that lived upstairs from him and sold party drugs to college kids had sketchy friends... but it was someplace he and Logan could be together and that was amazing.

\------

Logan blinked, brought back further to reality by that statement. "Right." He gave a wry sort of small smile and tapped Anders' nose gently. "I didn't think you would, love." 

He moved one finger in a circular motion. "You want to turn around, so I can get your back better?" Reaching for the soap, he lathered the washrag once more and waited. "And, technically - technically it's my house, not my family's house. Lease is in my name." He shrugged, pointedly not dwelling on just how much more pathetic his current situation was in that respect. It wasn't like he could get kicked out anymore, if that had ever been a concern. He was beginning to think Varric's prodding had a point, one he'd long ignored in favor of just not upsetting the status quo. Maybe that's what Varric'd been waiting for all this time - waiting to tell both of them they lived in the same goddamn town until Logan got his shit together and could actually offer Anders a real relationship. Peachy.

\------

Anders turned as Logan instructed, shifting a little self-consciously at baring his back this way. He'd shared the story behind the scars, but leaning against the edge of the pool it was just all out there again. He rolled his shoulders and settled once Logan touched him again. 

He fell silent, unsure if he should comment on Logan's near-defensiveness about his living situation. "At least I can offer a bed that's a little bigger than the one in the tavern from last night. We'll both fit?" He glanced over his shoulder with a slight, hopeful smile.

\------

Logan pressed a reassuring kiss to Anders' shoulder once he'd turned around. He hadn't thought about the scars for a moment, but of course Anders would be a little uncomfortable with it. Stupid of him not to think of that, really. His hands were gentler on Anders' back than they'd been even on his front. 

"Well, I'm sold," he said, reaching a sudsy hand to brush some of Anders' hair back from his ear when he glanced around, and offering a smile in return. 

He was ruining the moment with his usual habit of beating himself up, and he needed to stop.

\------

Once Anders settled into the fact that Logan was washing his back he arched and stretched like a cat. "God, that feels good," he murmured. leaning further up out of the water just so there was more of him to wash. Something about the soap and Logan's hands and the tenderness with which he was touching him was turning him into a puddle. Nevermind this was exposing half his ass, or that the little purring groan he made sounded wanton. He'd never let anybody do this before, and it felt fantastic.

\------

Logan laughed lightly at Anders' response, obligingly washing all of Anders' exposed skin and then dipping the cloth in the water to rinse it before rinsing all the soap off again. He leaned in close, nearly burying his nose in the hair on the back of Anders' head, his lips brushing the shell of Anders' ear. "Yeah?" His other hand traced up Anders' side slowly and gripped his shoulder, not too hard, but enough to work a few knots in his muscles free with the steady press of his thumb. When he was done he tossed the rag aside so it landed on the shelf with the soaps and gently massaged both of Anders' shoulders.

\------

Logan's breath against his ear, the warm rumble of his voice, the way he was right up behind Anders, made him gasp, and then the way his thumb dug into his shoulder made him groan. "Y-yeah." His voice was unsteady with the sudden throaty pleasure in it. And then it was both hands and he really was melting. 

Anders had shoulders that could kindly be called "crunchy" with knots and snarls of tension so that nothing seemed to be in the right place. He arched his neck and let his head drop as Logan worked on him, settling onto his knees on the bench and leaning on his forearms on the edge of the pool. "God, your _hands_ , Logan." Big, strong, calloused grip over slick skin in the heat, and they belonged to the man he loved? Maybe he'd died and this was heaven?

\------

Anders' responsiveness was doing all kinds of interesting things to Logan, from the warm possessiveness curling low in his stomach to the way his mouth felt stretched and sore from all the smiling he'd been doing today. He wanted this, to make Anders feel good, and wanted, and loved, with the kind of want he figured Anders had been asking about earlier.

"Yeah, I'm...pretty good at massages," he admitted softly, working through the knots he could find with pressure and firm fingers. "...which I would have brought up earlier if I had known you were so tense, Anders, holy shit." His brow furrowed and he abandoned any more talking to concentrate on the movement of his hands, applying more pressure now that Anders was clearly okay with it.

\------

Anders huffed a soft laugh that turned into another whimpering groan as Logan bore down harder into his knotted muscles. Between school and his volunteering, his part time job, and sitting at his computer all night, he carried a lot of tension in his shoulders. "I--" he made a guttural noise in his throat as one particularly gnarly knot in his trap came loose, "I'm..." He lost the thread of whatever he wanted to say in response to Logan's comment about his tension and then said, totally nonsensically, "I want to marry your thumbs."

\------

Logan hummed, smirking, and moved his hands down to work out some of the bigger knots on Anders' back as well. "Just my thumbs?" He tsked. "You do know how to make a man feel appreciated, love." He tilted his head, dug his thumbs in a few more spots, and then dropped his hands to Anders' hips and leaned forward to press an open-mouthed kiss to the base of Anders' neck.

\------

The drift of those hands down to his hips while Logan leaned over to kiss his neck, made Anders shudder with pleasure. He wasn't sure he could lift his head, all his muscles now languid puddles, but he reached up to cup the back of Logan's head as he kissed him. "You're right, that's hardly fair to the rest of your hands." He smiled, shivering with pleasure, and ignoring the fact that he'd proposed marriage to any part of Logan at all. It wasn't his fault. The massage had been melting his brain.

\------

"Quite so," Logan murmured against Anders' skin, finding it ever so easy to just...keep kissing along the curve of his shoulders and then down over his shoulder blade. "The rest of my hands will start to get jealous." He didn't pay any particular attention to the scars, just kissing them if they happened to be where he wanted to put his mouth, and then he started mouthing down the knobs of Anders' spine lightly. The soap he'd picked out had definitely been a good choice, clean and strong where the scent of it still clung to Anders' skin, and under that just Anders' scent himself, bright and warm. He sighed happily, breath ghosting over Anders' damp back.

\------

"Logan." Anders voice was slightly plaintive, a breathy whine in it as he kissed down his spine. "You're-- ah going to drive me crazy and I won't be able to finish washing and I really think I want to be clean so you can put that mouth wherever strikes your fancy." He realized how dirty that sounded after he said it, but mostly he was thinking about pond water and garden dirt and soot on his feet, and how even though they'd been soaking for a good while, he really wanted a thorough wash.

\------

Logan chuckled, a throaty noise, and pressed one last kiss to Anders' back before he straightened. "Sorry," he said, only one very tiny apologetic note in his voice to give away that he was actually sorry at all. He lingered for a moment with his hands still on Anders' hips and then, with effort, took a step away so that they weren't touching anymore, leaning up to grab the washrag he'd been using on Anders that had landed several feet farther than he'd meant to chuck it.


	2. Chapter 2

Anders turned toward Logan as he stepped away, leaning on the the side of the pool like he was still half boneless and looking at him with more-than-warm eyes. When he stretched for the rag he reached out and trailed his fingers over the muscles on his torso, over his ribs, down to the curve of his hip. "Did I even get to your back?" he asked mildly, amusement rich in his voice. "I don't think I did."

\------

Logan slid back down fully into the water with a soft splash, setting the rag within more easy reach next to Anders' bar of soap. He turned, and Anders was looking at him with those rich-warm eyes, fingers fitted against his hip, and Logan sighed, awash again - _again_ \- with disbelief and happiness at whatever crazy universe-bending magic had brought them here, together. He cupped Anders' cheek with one hand and kissed him deeply.

"You did not," he said, clearing his throat against the roughness there, when he pulled back.

\------

Anders responded to the kiss with a small noise of surprise and pleasure, lips parting and tasting Logan as he kissed him. It was magic. Literally, and figuratively, he guessed. It just made every part of him come alive when Logan reached for him. 

Anders could believe, with that hand on his face, that he was worth the rough warmth in Logan's voice, the welling of emotion. He cleared the thickness from his own throat and reached for the rag and soap before standing and moving behind Logan. "Do you need a neckrub too?" He began lathering the rag and then smoothing it up and down Logan's spine, then out along his shoulders.

\------

Logan glanced over his shoulder at him, one brow raising. He gave a faint chuckle. "If you want, love." He rolled his neck and widened his stance, relaxing under Anders' touch with a sigh. "Mm, I might be a bit tense after that bed last night. Lumpy."

\------

Anders washed him from the nape of his neck to the divots at the small of his back and then rinsed just as diligently. When he was done he flopped the rag over his own shoulder and reached up with both hands to run his thumbs into the muscles on either side of Logan's neck. 

Logan had a lot more muscle to work on, and Anders hands weren't as big, nor as powerful. Still, he knew the spots to target with small circles of pressure and as he worked, focusing intently on the muscles, almost _listening_ to them in a way he couldn't quite quantify, he felt his magic flicker and rise and his hands flickered with warm, slick buzzing of healing magic as he rubbed harder with the heels of his palms. 

He blinked, startled by the sudden flash of power and jerked his hands back, shaking it away. "Shit. Sorry, I didn't mean to do that without asking. Are you okay?" he asked, voice gone small and worried.

\------

It shouldn't have been a surprise that Anders' clever fingers would be good at that - he was a med student with an intimate knowledge of human anatomy, for crying out loud - but Logan still found himself not quite expecting it to feel _that_ good. His head drooped as Anders worked, and he let out soft noises of pleasure as he felt his muscles loosening.

Then Anders let out that buzz of healing magic, and Logan _moaned_ , shocking himself with how loud he was, his head dropping further and his shoulders bowing in. It was heat and pleasure, roiling through him, making all the muscles in his back and neck relaxed and pliant all at once, and he thought for a moment he might tip forward because it made him literally weak in the knees with how _good_ it felt. "Fuck." He braced himself with one hand on the wall and breathed, trying to gain the willpower to stand up straight again when he felt largely turned into a pile of boneless goo. His cock had taken a decided interest in the whole matter, predictably, bobbing up towards his stomach in the water. "I...heh. Fine. 'm fine," he managed.

\------

Anders huffed a nervous laugh at Logan's obvious pleasure, hands moving back to rub up and down his back gently. He needed to get a better handle on that - desperately so. It wasn't as if the magic hadn't done what he wanted. He wanted to make Logan feel good, ease his tensions, but he hadn't consciously thought of using his magic for any of that. 

He wrapped his arms around Logan's waist and buried his face against his neck, breathing in the scent of his hair and the new soap. "You sure?" he asked softly.

\------

Logan nodded several times with Anders' face pressed against his neck and wrapped his free arm over Anders' arms about his waist. He was definitely fine, better than fine, but with Anders sort of draped over his back, all that skin against his skin...

"Yeah, but if you-" His voice came out low and gravelly with want and he shifted, fingers brushing over Anders' wrist. "If you want to actually finish bathing you might not want to be touching me so much, because. Um." He shivered. "That healy stuff is a ridiculous turn-on, darlin'."

\------

The gravel in Logan's voice sent a shiver through Anders and he slid his hands up his chest before he drew away with a shuddering sigh. "Okay then." He laughed, low and shaky, as he peeled himself off of Logan's back and went to get his own soap and washcloth. "I'd accuse you of being some kind of mage fetishist, but since you are one too." His eyes twinkled as he glanced back at Logan before hefting himself up onto the edge of the pool where he could wash his legs and feet thoroughly. 

Even with all the soaking the soles of his feet were still a smudgy greyish-black and he grimaced as he scrubbed at them.

\------

Logan groaned as Anders slid his hands up his chest and then felt the loss of his touch keenly when Anders stepped away, no matter he was the one to suggest it. He inhaled deeply, and then narrowed his eyes at Anders, putting both hands on his hips as he straightened. 

"I am going to figure out enough of my mediocre healing ability in this - realm, or...whatever - to be able to use it on you, and then we'll see if you're so snarky about this," he grumbled. And kept grousing as he clambered out next to Anders and grabbed for his own soap and rag. "I can hardly be held responsible for my body's reactions to your magic specifically designed to help people feel good." He started scrubbing his lower body more briskly than necessary to distract himself from the urge to push Anders back against the stone right then and there.

\------

That made Anders laugh, a surprised clear bell of it, and he shook his head. "What a terrible threat. I'm sure if you asked the older Anders for healing lessons so that you could give me what for, he'd be happy to oblige." He paused for a moment as he stood on the bench, finishing soaping up diligently and then sank back into the water with a pleased sigh. "Actually, the way he was ogling your shoulders, I don't know if that's a good idea." He smirked a little, giving Logan a sidelong ogle himself.

\------

Logan fumbled and only barely caught his rag at that. He blushed furiously, cheeks and chest stained dark. "I'm not asking your weird, self-martyring look-alike for magic lessons on how best to get you off, Anders!" he spluttered, scrubbing at the bottoms of his feet roughly. "The man is in love with Fenris! Fenris, of all people! And another lady version of me, apparently, but seriously, Fenris." He shook his head several times and tossed his rag aside with a wet smack, sliding back into the water and submersing.

When he surfaced he muttered something under his breath about freaky copies who were entirely too flirty for his liking, cupping water to splash over his shoulders. He didn't actually look upset, just...mildly disturbed. He gave a great shake of his shoulders, almost a shudder, rather like a dog would shake out its fur.

\------

Logan's minor tantrum about the older version of him made Anders' laughter continue until his face hurt. He washed his hair, shoulder shaking until he was afraid he'd get soap in his eyes. He dunked into the water and came up closer to Logan with water streaming into his eyes. He flipped it back with a grin, and then started laughing again. "He is in love with Fenris, that's true. Is that weirding you out because you're... jealous?" Anders tipped his head to the side, eyes widening. "Are you jealous of Fenris and my sad-eyed slightly unstable double?" He burst into a fresh bout of giggles.

\------

Logan ran his damp fingers through his short curls and decided it didn't really need to be soaped, and then Anders was practically cackling at him. He scrunched up his face, all set to scowl at him, except he was flipping his hair back in an absurdly sexy gesture, water streaming down his skin, and Logan sort of...forgot to breath.

"What?" Jealous? Had Anders said jealous? "What? Why would I be...what." He rubbed his forehead and tried to regain his train of thought from a moment ago. "He's just-" he huffed. "I don't know, very forward for someone madly in love with not one, but two people, and it's - I don't - you were looking at him weird when he was flirting with me, and it was a little weird that he was flirting with me to begin with, and I don't...know how I feel about it." He wrapped his arms around his chest.

\------

Anders' mirth quieted as Logan fumbled to explain, and his eyes were soft and warm, and full of love that was so intense in that moment he kind of was disgusted with himself for even feeling it. He moved closer to Logan, and grabbed him by the hips. "Hey, come here, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have laughed like that. It was weird to watch old-me flirt with you, yes. I was only teasing. I thought it might be weird for you to imagine any version of me after Fenris." He snorted loudly. "Of all people. As if."

His thumbs stroked against Logan's sides. "You know you get me, right? Like, there's no sharing, or worrying. You've had me for a long time, and you didn't know it. I love you, Logan. And I hope his weird circumstances didn't make you doubt what that means." He leaned in, hoping for a kiss, eyes fixed on Logan's brilliant blue ones.

\------

Logan's arms dropped down to his sides again as Anders tugged him closer, and after a moment he looped them over Anders' shoulders. "Well, yes, there was that too," he said, offering a small smirk at the idea of Anders pursuing Fenris.

"I - I know, love." He sighed, pressing closer to Anders, not sure where the desire to be reassured again was coming from, but wanting Anders' touch anyways. "I think it bothered me most at first because it seemed to be bothering you, and I don't...you know I'm in love with you, not your fake video game character who is apparently real, right?" Logan's eyes flicked down to Anders' lips when he leaned in, and he closed the distance between them to kiss Anders slowly.

\------

Anders slid his arms around Logan's waist, bringing them flush together as he pressed into the kiss, lips parting against Logan's, tasting his bottom lip, sucking on it gently. He pulled away after a moment and smiled. "Yeah, I know. It was just weird seeing myself through that lens. And then, you know, this is new. I didn't really think you'd be more into him than me, but I didn't want him to make you uncomfortable." He kissed Logan again, a soft press of his lips, hands sliding up and down his back.

\------

"Yeah, well. Maybe just a little uncomfortable." Logan gave a self-deprecating ghost of a smile as he pulled back from the second kiss slowly, brushing his fingers through the hair at Anders' nape. "Also I was a little disturbed his his self-sacrificing attitude, honestly. Seeing any version of you talking about how he feels like he should be dead is...bound to bother me." He wrapped his arms tighter around Anders' shoulders and kissed his forehead, eyes sliding shut.

\------

Anders hugged him tighter, leaning into the kiss on his forehead and shivering a little at Logan's words. "I guess it was easier on me with Marian since you and she... are not really the same-same." He was really uncomfortable with the older-Anders... would he call it a deathwish? He wasn't sure. Regardless, what Logan described had made Anders feel a strange aching shame, and he moved his head to the crook of Logan's neck. "But they weren't in the best shape, were they?"

\------

Logan ran a hand over the back of Anders' head as he nuzzled into his neck. "No," he agreed softly. "No, they weren't." He dropped his other arm to hug Anders about the middle, closer to his chest. "And I mean, they're not us, not really, so you would think it would...not bother me so much, but...still." He sighed, running his hand up and down Anders' back in a slow, soothing motion. "I'm not making sense, but this place doesn't really make sense. You're the only thing here that makes any kind of sense. God, can you imagine if we'd gotten pulled here without each other?" He shuddered.

\------

Anders' arms closed painfully tight around Logan's middle, and he made a low distressed noise. Either way it would have been terrible. "Listening to your mic go dead and then nothing? Carver telling us you're just gone?" He shook his head sharply into Logan's neck. "Fuck. I wonder how time is flowing at home. Are we missing? How long?" 

Shit. What if they were trapped here for weeks and he failed all his classes and his financial aid was canceled? He stiffened slightly at the thought. Or the distress that Logan's family would be in, both financially, and emotionally for him to just disappear. "Shit," he repeated out loud, voice slightly pitchy with sudden panic.

\------

"I heard you scream right before I was falling. I think we all did," Logan whispered, shivery with the remembered panic of it. He closed his eyes and kissed the top of Anders' head, burying his nose in his hair to ground himself in the scent of Anders under the new soap, a scent he was already now associating with _home_ , more, perhaps, than he with his wandering feet had ever associated anything with home. 

"Maybe we can hope it's one of those types of places where we go home and no time has passed? I mean I don't think we're exactly confined by the usual limits of time and space and physics here." He tried to be optimistic, but then Anders was getting that panicky note in his voice and Logan too was thinking about all the people and responsibilities they'd both left at home, his mom and Carver and even Bethy because he was still putting quite a bit of money towards her school, and Anders had classes... "We're gonna figure it out," he said firmly, as much for himself as for Anders, because he was Hawke, that was what he did, he figured it out and he told everyone it was going to be okay in the meantime. "Together, okay? It's not just you or me anymore. It's both of us, huh? Together."

\------

"Together," Anders repeated when Logan said it again, and that was important, because Logan would help no matter what. "If I lose my scholarship because I failed all my classes due to extended unexplained absence, can I sleep on your couch?" He laughed, a little shrill, but trying to believe it would be okay. That he wouldn't wind up homeless if it turned out they were stuck here long enough for people to really take note. For consequences. 

Optimism wasn't something Anders was great at, but for Logan? He'd beg, borrow, or steal it. And as long as it was together, they'd get by.

\------

Logan wrinkled up his nose at the thought. It would be almost unbearable to have Anders in his house and on his _couch_ at night, living with him but not being with him, and he had a feeling that the longer they were stuck here the more impossible it would seem. "Or...my bed, but. We could talk about it." He worried at his bottom lip. "I've done almost nothing but work and save for three years, Anders. More, really. We would have to be gone a long, long time for me to be in real trouble. I mean, it would set back my long-term plans, but..." he shrugged. 

He cupped Anders cheek so he could look him in the eye. "In any event, you're safe with me, love, no matter what." He was tempted to say _I'll take care of you_ but that seemed...intense, so he kept that part to himself and kissed Anders gently instead.

\------

Anders blinked at Logan, blushing and brightening at the same time when _my bed_. Of course that would be better, but they'd also known each other, in the flesh (if that's what was happening here) for less than a day, and what they were talking about was perilously close to _let's move in together_ and he'd already been an idiot with marrying Logan's hands... 

But that nervous spiral of worry that he was being too much was cut short when Logan cupped his face and kissed him and he let out a soft little breathy, voiced sigh, the tension almost instantly unraveling. This was too novel, too precious, to be ignored for mundane panicking. His lips parted and he deepened the kiss, a soft noise of pleasure in his throat.

\------

The way in which Anders relaxed into the kiss, sighing softly, made Logan feel warm and happy. It was a weirdly gooey feeling somewhere in his middle, which just served to confirm Logan's suspicions that he was absurdly sappy and over the top when it came to Anders, but it was difficult to care anymore when Anders was kissing him back like that. Logan ran his tongue along Anders' bottom lip and gripped at Anders' hair, letting his worries about what they would do when they got back and how they would get back fade.

\------

If this was how Logan was going to make him feel, relaxed, floating, like nothing could touch them, he was definitely going to have to keep him around come exam time. Anders snorted softly at the entirely ridiculous thought and then his tongue slipped out and met Logan's, teasing it back into his mouth. 

His fingers gripped tighter and slid down to the small of Logan's back, just above the line of the water, tracing against the damp skin.

\------

Logan gave a soft huff of laughter at Anders' snort, but was distracted from asking about it by the touch of Anders' tongue against his, the light teasing presses back into his mouth. His breath hitched. He brushed his fingers through Anders' hair in a circular motion and rocked forward against Anders at the fingers on his back. 

Eventually he ran his tongue once more lightly against the swell of Anders' and pulled back just enough to kiss his chin and then his jaw, down to his neck. "What?" he asked, voice low and amused and rumbly, against Anders' skin.

\------

The kissing-for-hours plan was starting to look more and more likely. Anders hummed as Logan kissed his chin and jaw, into his neck, head lilting so there was more of his neck to kiss. 

He grinned and twitched at Logan's rumble, eyes falling shut. "What?" he asked with mild confusion in his voice as his hands drifted below the water to smooth over Logan's ass. He honestly didn't know what Logan was asking about, but with the fingers in his hair and the mouth on his neck, he wasn't sure it could matter terribly.

\------

Logan kissed his way down the side of Anders' neck slowly, almost worshipfully, then let out a soft groan as Anders' hands drifted over his ass. "You snorted," he pulled back to say, eyes flicking up to Anders' honey-gold eyes before he was back kissing the column of Anders' throat and down to lick at the hollow between his collarbones. "You sounded amused, is all." He smoothed the hand that wasn't still in Anders' hair up his chest and ran his fingers lightly over Anders' clavicle, glancing at his eyes again.

\------

Anders let out a long hum of either consideration or pleasure. It was both really. He'd snorted? Oh, he had, but why... And then Logan's tongue was on his skin at the base of his throat and there were no thoughts at all for a moment. 

It occured to him all in a rush, what he'd been thinking, because the floating was happening again. "I was just thinking how good for my anxiety you are going to be during finals week. But honestly, Logan, you make me feel..." He lifted his head, found Logan's mouth for a brief kiss. "Safe."

\------

Logan straightened, his head tilting. "Oh." He smiled, suddenly shy, dropped his gaze to his fingers still stroking along the smooth skin of Anders' clavicle. There was a warm sort of feeling of accomplishment in his chest; he felt like it was pushing out from the inside, expanding inside him, happiness and pride and pleasure. There was very little he wanted more, truth be told, than to make the people around him, the ones he loved, feel safe and cared for, and if he was _already_ doing that for Anders? That was more than he dared hope for.

"Good," he whispered, looking Anders in the eye again, his smile widening, before he kissed him again.

\------

The nuances of Logan's gorgeous smile, shy warmth, sweet happiness, made warmth bloom in Anders chest as well, love and protectiveness. "Good," he whispered back, eyes twinkling, and then kissed Logan back.

He pushed gently, nudging Logan back toward the edge until he bumped up against the bench. When he sat Anders slid into his lap, sighing in pleasure at sinking back into the hot water. "Is this okay? We could also get out and go back to the room."

\------

Logan settled, his hands dropping to Anders' thighs in the water and then settling on his hips. "This is okay," he said with a small smile, content with how warm and relaxed he felt and moreso for the lap full of Anders. He lifted a dripping hand and turned it to eye his palm. "We might get pruny after a while, though. Does that bother you? Carver is always weird about it."

\------

"Swooning due to heat instead of just from kissing you is a little more worrisome than pruny fingers." Anders grinned and kissed Logan's palm and then his cheek, legs squeezing his hips. 

"As long as we're warm and I'm touching you, pruny or not, I'm happy, love." Anders cupped the sides of Logan's neck, thumbs tracing his jawline as Anders leaned closer to kiss him.

\------

Logan wrinkled his nose and teased, "You had to go and be practical about it, yeesh." He dropped the hand Anders had kissed to his shoulder and then leaned up, chin tilting, to kiss him in return. "This is rather more hot tub heat than usual bath heat, isn't it? At least with the fact it's not getting cooler." He hummed, giving Anders another brief kiss. "But same."

\------

"Practical? I thought I was being romantic. Talking about heading back to the room. Where the bed is." Anders flicked his tongue across the curve of Logan's bottom lip. "I think I want to get out before I lose the rest of my coherence. Plus... bed." He waggled his eyebrows. "Be-ed."

\------

"Mm." Logan opened his mouth and touched the tip of his tongue to Anders' tongue, then pulled back teasingly, his head dropping against the wall. "You are exceedingly eloquent and very persuasive, my love." He smirked.

\------

Anders pulled a face, mimicking Logan's smirk, and then kissed his chin before standing up out of his lap on the bench and pulling himself up onto the edge and out of the pool. "Bed," he repeated a final time with a wide smile, and beckoned for Logan to join him in drying off and getting dressed.

\------

Logan grinned and stood to scramble out after him. He grabbed one of the towels off the bench where he'd left them earlier and slung it low around his hips, then collected their washrags and soaps, putting the soap back and the rags in the basket that seemed to be for dirty cloths before he paused to towel off. Habit, partially, but also it helped to distract him from watching Anders dry off, because watching his dripping boyfriend when there wasn't a lot of water in the way was bound to lead to some staring and be unhelpful all around. Getting back to that bed did sound good. 

He rubbed the towel over his short curls briefly and then flung it over his shoulder when he was done, going back for the fresh clothes he'd brought.

\------

Anders dried off while keeping Logan in the corner of his eye, enjoying watching him move around, flushing the occasional times their eyes met. And then there was the fact he was gorgeous and half-naked and Anders didn't mind seeing as much of that as possible forever. 

He squeezed the water out of his hair and ran his fingers through the tangles that left behind before pulling on his new clothes. The smalls were weird, but achievable. The legging things were an interesting challenge on skin that was still slightly damp. 

There was a lot of wiggling and shifting and when he finally had them on, laced, they barely skirted his hipbones, low-slung, practically painted on, and he was blushing at the way they really left none of his assets in the front or the behind to the imagination. "These... might have been a bit ambitious." He rubbed his hands across his stomach and then craned to try to see his own ass and huffed. "At least the tunic is long."

\------

Logan finished lacing his pants and looked up with an arched brow when Anders spoke. His mouth went dry. "Um." God, the leggings looked good, especially from the back, although the idea of Anders wearing them everywhere was, perhaps, not his most favorite. He couldn't imagine any sane person not ogling him. "...Yeah. Well." He shrugged the shirt on easily, and stepped towards Anders. "They make your ass look really, really good, though?" He ran his fingers along the waistband of the leggings and then palmed Anders' ass lightly, giving a lopsided, half flustered grin.

\------

Anders blushed more brightly at the compliment, though his grin was sly as he pressed back a little into Logan's hand. "So I should find a shorter shirt to wear with them? One that doesn't obstruct the view?" 

He bent down then, overtly, ridiculously teasing. He was fairly limber though and managed to keep his legs straight, ass up, as he bent forward to grab the undershirt that he'd brought down with them.

\------

Logan let out a grumbling noise deep in his throat, almost a very soft growl. "At the risk of sounding like a possessive asshole, I really would rather you didn't." He rubbed at the back of his neck a bit awkwardly, not sure what to make of the intensity of these new feelings. The protectiveness wasn't new, not by a long shot, but the rest... well. 

And then Anders was bending over _like that_ , his perfect ass in the air, and Logan almost choked. He grabbed Anders around the waist when he finally straightened and pulled him flush back against him. "You are ridiculous," he rumbled, cupping his chin with one hand so he could turn Anders' head and kiss him, hard.

\------

Anders pressed back into Logan's arms, grinning at being called ridiculous. "You keep saying that, but I'm not sure it means--" He was cut off by the hand on his chin turning his face and the kiss that followed. 

He let out a soft groan at the heat in it, the arm around his waist, arching his back and pressing closer to Logan. He was breathing hard and laughing softly as the kiss broke and murmured, "I didn't know my ass was that inspiring of devotion."

\------

Logan raised both brows. "I'm fairly certain I mentioned it before. If not, that was definitely an oversight on my part." He drew the pad of his thumb from the edge of Anders' jaw all the way to his chin and cocked his head. "Anyways, the point is all of you is inspiring of devotion, darlin'." He thumbed the center of Anders' chin and smirked, just enough open devotion in his eyes to make the expression not quite suave. Then he dropped his hand, loosening his grip on Anders' waist so he could actually put the tunic on.

After a moment, he blinked. "Was that nearly a Princess Bride joke?"

\------

Logan's eyes, the sound of his rumbling affection, all of it was turning Anders into a love-drunk idiot, too warm and open to stop grinning. He shuffled the undershirt over his head and it fell just below the waist of the leggings, and as his head popped through the neckhole he coughed at Logan's question. 

"Ah. Yes? I mean, I mangled the line, and then you interrupted me, so we could just forget it ever happened? Unless you think my being a giant nerd is sexy, in which case... do you want to watch the Princess Bride with me sometime?" He turned to give Logan a kiss on the tip of his nose, eyes sparkling, warm and honeyed, almost lit from within.

\------

Logan blinked again, looking incredibly flustered and giving a pleased sort of tiny smile at the kiss on his nose. "I, um." What had he been about to say? He shook his head to clear it. Something...agreeing...Princess Bride...oh. "Yeah, that sounds nice." He straightened the fabric across Anders' shoulders reflexively, flicked a glance at his eyes and very nearly lost his train of thought, _again_. "I don't know about sexy, but certainly very attractive," he managed. He kissed Anders' cheek.

Bed...yes, they needed to make it back to the room before Logan was completely incapable of reasonable thought. He went and gathered up his dirty clothes and then came back again, offering his hand. "You good?"

\------

Anders shrugged into the tunic, without bothering with all the toggles and belts, and with his falling wet hair and the stubble darkening his jaw, shirt gaping open, he looked fairly rakish. 

He gathered up his castoffs and took Logan's hand. "Better than I've ever been," he said earnestly, smile almost shy. He followed as Logan led them to the stairs and with only the slightest flicker of thought his wisps rejoined them. He'd forgotten about them, but there they were, drawing only the tiniest bit of mana to stay lit, bobbing... eagerly in the stairwell. If tiny non-corporeal orbs of light could be eager. 

They seemed... friendly though, and not simply inanimate light sources. Anders wondered if they had anything to do with the spirits of the Fade that the older Anders said might be interested in him.

\------

Logan wasn't sure how it was possible for Anders to be so goddamn stunning. He was sin incarnate, all long legs and rough stubble, his hair falling into warm honey eyes, and those eyes were looking at Logan with such obvious devotion, and Logan was holding his _hand_. A hand that belonged to the man he loved who was also this incredibly sexy person, who was also, impossibly, his boyfriend. Logan made an aggrieved sound deep in his throat, struck dumb by how unfairly attractive Anders was on top of everything else, particularly like this, and he brought Anders' hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it before hurrying to lead the way.

When he reached the steps, his wisp winked out from where it had settled in one of the sconces in the center of the bathroom, and Logan didn't think anything of it until Anders' wisps bobbed to follow them. He paused to eye them, thoughtful.

"I do believe that kind of thing comes more naturally to you, love," he murmured. Which wasn't really a surprise. Creation magic was more Anders' thing, and Logan was very, very distracted.

\------

The way that Logan looked at him as he kissed his hand made Anders' mouth dry and his cheeks heat and his impossibly tight pants even tighter. He nudged up against Logan when he stopped to examine his wisps. "Well, they just want to be helpful. It's easy to keep them here." He rested his chin on Logan's shoulder and smiled as the wisps flitted and capered. 

He wanted to be close to Logan, eager to lean against him, nuzzle into the damp hair behind his ear, breathe in his scent. He couldn't believe how good it felt to be with him, to let him know how much Anders loved him. It was a bit mad, how fast and how hard they were taking this, but he couldn't believe that their awkward hesitance, pining and solitude made more sense. 

When Logan started back up the stairs the wisps kept the steps lit, and it wasn't long until they were back in the network of hallways that would (eventually if Logan remembered the directions, because Anders surely didn't) lead them back to the guest wing.

\------

Logan tilted his head when Anders nosed in behind his ear. He hummed softly, squeezing Anders' hand, and just stood there for a moment, soaking in Anders' warm solid presence at his back. When he moved on, he cast a small happy smile at Anders over his shoulder. 

There was more pausing on the way back to the guest wing, as Logan took the directions Marian had given them and reversed them in his brain, but still, it didn't take him too long to lead them back. He didn't mention how relieved a part of him was at the fact. He was fairly certain his brain was turning to mush except the part that was focused on Anders' hand in his, and it would have been embarrassing to get them lost after he'd just established how good a sense of direction he had.

"Ta-da," he said, opening the door to the room they'd chosen.

\------

Anders released Logan's hand long enough to clap for him, grinning over his polite applause. He stopped, letting one of his hands fall to his side, the other raking through his damp hair, smile going from teasing to warm. "Honestly though, I'm impressed. I'd probably be back in the pond if I'd tried to find my way back." 

He let his hand fall and shrugged out of the tunic, moving to drape it over the back of a chair, leaving him in the light linen undershirt and leggings. He toed off his shoes and glanced over at Logan, eyebrows lifted. "So, what now, love?"

\------

Logan stuck out his tongue at the clapping and then grinned, the grin widening when Anders genuinely complimented him. "Yeah, well, it was a close thing there once or twice, but we still made it. The trick is to pretend you know exactly what you're doing even when you don't, see." 

He dropped his other clothes on the floor by the wardrobes, and nodded towards the bed. "There is a conveniently large bed there, for cuddling at the very least, hmm?" He kicked off his shoes as well and raised his eyebrows slightly, waiting. It wasn't like he expected Anders to say no, really, but he wanted him to be able to.

\------

Anders let out a sigh, relief and eagerness on his face. "Yes, please." He flopped onto the bed, face-first, long legs hanging off and then lifted his head so that he could speak. "You're going to have to peel me though. I don't know if I have the hand strength to get these pants off again so soon." He grinned and rolled over onto his back, stretching and arching like a cat.

\------

Logan snorted, pulling the blue shirt off over his head and dropping it on the chair next to Anders' tunic before following Anders to the bed. He slid over, one hand going to Anders' hip, and bent to kiss him, nipping lightly at Anders' bottom lip. "The horror!" He smirked as he pulled back, fingers stroking over the leggings and the exposed skin above the waistband.

\------

Anders followed Logan's motion with avid eyes, smiling into the kiss and leaning up to chase it before he collapsed back, eyes fluttering, with those fingers on the skin so low on his stomach. "Logan," he whispered, breathless, every time he got to say his name instead of _Hawke_ a gift. Just that simple brush of fingers against his abdomen was enough to drive everything else away. Just Logan. 

He pushed up onto his elbows to cup Logan's cheek, eyes on his. "I love you," he murmured, just because he could, but also because he had to. It wouldn't stay inside.

\------

Logan closed his eyes, smiling faintly, relishing the sound of his name in Anders' mouth, the way it came out almost like a sigh, so full of warmth and love. And maybe that made it more real, somehow, because he'd imagined Anders calling him by name so many times before all of this, but to actually hear it, in that voice of his, a dozen different ways or more... that was beyond anything Logan could have imagined.

His eyes opened again when Anders took his face in his hand, and Logan curled the hand that wasn't still petting a path over Anders' hipbones to brush through Anders' hair. "I love you too," he whispered, because for a moment to say it any louder seemed disrespectful of this new, fragile, steadfast thing they had between them.

\------

Anders drew Logan in with the hand on his face, until their lips met. His kiss was tender, cherishing, that slowly turned slow and heated with a slow scrape of his teeth over Logan's lower lip. He smiled, sucking at the faint sting. 

As he drew back he kissed the corner of Logan's mouth, and then his chin. "I would've waited another ten years for this," he whispered. "I'm so glad I don't have to."

\------

Logan kissed back with equal tenderness, gentle, letting Anders draw the kiss out and turn it into something more sensual. And then when he spoke, Logan shook his head, struck dumb by how damn similar they were about this, how impossible it was that they both should have felt exactly the same way all this time, with never a hint of their feelings fading, and still neither of them having made the first move.

He pushed Anders back against the bed with a hand on his shoulder, slipping a leg in between Anders' so he was laying half-over him. "Are you sure you didn't get some kind of psychic mind-reading powers when we got here, love?" He kissed him again, just as gently, swiping his tongue over Anders' lower lip before withdrawing to murmur, "Because you keep saying things that might as well have come out of my mouth."

\------

Anders lay back easily under the gentle press of Logan's hand, sighing into the kiss as he smoothed his hands over Logan's shoulders and down his sides to pull him closer still. "I'm pretty sure if I was reading your mind, I'd stop being surprised by how much you seem to like me." He lifted his head, kissing along Logan's collarbone. 

"But I'm so glad that you do." He nipped lightly at the curve of the freckled, warm skin over his shoulder. "Like me that much. I mean."

\------

Logan braced himself with his forearm next to Anders' head, now rucking up Anders' undershirt to brush his fingers over more of his skin. He sighed softly as Anders kissed along his collarbone. "I have half a mind to have a talk with whoever you've had in your life giving you this absolutely absurd idea about people not wanting to be with you. They should all be falling over themselves to get in line." He turned his head and caught Anders' lips with his own, a light, teasing brush before he was pulling back again.

\------

The kiss caught Anders breath as well as his lips, and when Logan pulled away he watched him for a moment. "You going to vet my queue of hypothetical potential suitors, Logan?" His lips quirked, teasing and wry. 

He didn't know how to explain how so many of his past relationships had been little more than hookups, a few longer friends-with-benefits situations, and the occasional date-friend that fizzled into just being friends.

\------

Logan wrinkled his nose at him. "I'm just saying, I think your comment from before, about people having to be stupid not to want to be with me, I think the same thing about you. So." 

He inched up Anders' shirt enough so almost all of his lower stomach was exposed and bent to plant kisses over his far hipbone, just below his navel. "But then I fell violently in love with you just from chatting with you in a video game and listening to your voice, so the idea of not throwing myself in your arms -" he paused, brow furrowing, fingers which had drifted over to card through the hair on Anders' chest slowing. "Scooping you up in my arms? That sounds safer. Anyways. A very short time after meeting you had we meet in real life first, is a bit beyond my comprehension." He shrugged, giving a lopsided smile.

\------

"Are you saying I couldn't catch you if you threw yourself at me?" Anders let out a breathy laugh, trying to sound offended but mostly just delighted by the brush of Logan's lips and fingers. He let his eyes drift shut as he arched his back. "I mean you're probably right. But I'd try."

He reached down to run his hand over Logan's hair. "And it wasn't that people haven't wanted me. At least at first. They just don't stay." His voice trailed off and he shrugged before opening his eyes and looking down at Logan.

\------

"I think the fact that you would try would probably be where the problem would lie, love." Logan chuckled, an image of Anders trying very hard to catch him and still ending up rather crushed in his head. He kissed Anders' stomach again and then set his chin on it, his hand running idly up Anders' side.

When Anders opened his eyes, Logan was giving him considering look, blue eyes soft and a little sad. It wouldn't do to make promises about how he wasn't going to leave, not in response to that, even if Logan literally could not conceive of ever letting Anders go, because all the rest had probably said the same thing at first. He licked his lips and shook his head disapprovingly, clicking his tongue. "Well, more for me, then." He smirked, a tiny thing, and then he was sliding up Anders' body and tangling a hand in his hair and kissing him passionately because for a second he felt like he would burst if he didn't kiss him immediately.

\------

Anders was surprised at how relieved he felt when Logan didn't make wild promises of never leaving. He didn't need those kinds of protestations and declarations. Because people always left, one way or the other. Sometimes they just died and there was nothing you could do. But if Logan didn't make promises he wouldn't have to worry about how much he'd hate him later, when he broke them. 

He gasped into the sudden passion of the kiss, mouth opening under Logan's, inviting and warm. He hooked his leg, still clad in those ridiculously tight leggings over his hip and squeezed him. At a break in the kiss he whispered, "All for you, Logan," and then turned his mouth back to his.

\------

Logan's breath hitched when Anders spoke. He shifted with the squeeze of Anders' leg, pressing closer, his hand roaming up to rest lightly at the juncture of Anders' neck and shoulder. His mouth was open under Anders', eager as he responded and licked and teased. "You shouldn't - ah - be allowed to say such things to me," he groaned between kisses, the fingers of his other hand tightening in Anders' hair.

\------

Anders shivered and whimpered softly at the tight grip on his hair, eyes fluttering in pleasure at how anchored he felt with Logan pressing him down, fingers holding his head still. He nipped softly at his lower lip and grinned. "I shouldn't? Who's going to stop me?" He arched in a sinuous wave, squeezing with his leg while rocking his hips up. "Because I'm pretty sure you're enjoying the fact I'm here, all warm and clean and pliant, spread out under you." 

One of his hands stole to the side of Logan's face, a tender cup of his cheek, while his eyes darkened, deepened, and his voice turned a little breathy. "All for you."

\------

Logan shuddered and rolled his hips against him, pretty sure the wording there, while undeniably hot, was worthy of teasing. Except Anders was arching up against him while they were pressed so close and god, his _voice_. As per usual, it was doing things to him, namely driving Logan out of conscious thought and into a panting, whining mess, all warm skin and need. 

And then Anders' hand was on his face and his gorgeous eyes were on his eyes and he was saying that, again, and Logan gasped and rutted against him shamelessly, suddenly far, far closer to the edge than he would have expected. "Fuck," he breathed, burying his face against Anders' neck. "Fuck."

\------

Anders purred at that reaction, a throaty moan that seemed to originate in his slender chest. He nodded against Logan's hair, grinding up against him and then whispered, "God, Logan, we need to be naked. If I come in these pants I have no idea how I'll get them clean. And that is going to happen if you don't take them off." He was speaking in a low voice, intonation making it sound like something he wouldn't mind at all, tone filthy with desire.

\------

Logan whimpered into the curve of Anders' throat, hips rolling at an unsteady, stuttering pace he couldn't seem to quite control. He took a deep breath, nodding against Anders' skin to show that he'd heard, and yes, really rather agreed, but that meant _moving_ , which sounded terrible. Anders' tone wasn't helping. With a huff that quickly devolved into a whine, he braced himself up with one hand and reluctantly sort of peeled his upper body off of Anders, reaching down to hook his thumb in the waistband of his pants with one hand and shimmy out of them. Without really moving off of Anders' lower half.

\------

Anders helped Logan out of his pants, once they were pushed past his hips he used his feet to scrape them further down until Logan could kick them off, then the same treatment for his smalls. With the larger man pushed off of him he also squirmed out of his undershirt, tossing it off the bed without much care where it would land. 

His hands moved down to unlace the leggings but got distracted by the warm skin of Logan's stomach and then the flushed head of his cock, the pads of his fingers brushing over it as he hummed.

\------

"Anders," Logan groaned, voice rough and strained. "I'm not going to be able to help peel you out of anything if you keep doing that." He shifted, putting more of his weight on his side and sliding partially off of Anders. "And that's - hardly fair." He ran a hand over the skin of Anders' lower stomach just lightly enough to be teasing and then reached for the ties of the leggings himself. When it came to peeling them off, though, he had to slide down the bed to tug them down Anders' thighs and over his calves, finally succeeding in getting them to a point where Anders could just kick them off. He ran his hands back up Anders' thighs and reached for the smallclothes.

\------

"Fair? Who's counting fair? With you looking like that?" Anders hands ran up Logan's shoulders as he slid away, and then lifted his hips in a lean arch so that he could tug the leggings down. When Logan's hand returned for the smalls he repeated the gesture, the muscles in his abdomen flexing as he bucked against the hands working the laces, where his own erection was straining. 

He muttered something in a different language, the consonants glottal. His pupils were blown when he looked down his body at Logan, just a thin rim of gold of the irises remaining. "Please, Logan."

\------

"Fuck," Logan muttered, fumbling with the laces as Anders bucked against his fingers, his eyes caught on the play of muscles in Anders' abdomen. And then Anders was saying something in some other language entirely and Logan didn't have much conscious brain left to wonder what that was about because then he was grinding against Anders' hip and shoving his smalls down the rest of the way, all his breath caught in his throat. "Oh god." He shuddered, wondered if he could make Anders do that again. He was so on edge, he wouldn't have been surprised if he could come from the sound of Anders' voice alone. 

He wet his lips at Anders' plea and managed a "Shh, love," and then he was abruptly shifting and placing himself between Anders's thighs. He bent his head and licked a broad swathe up the underside of Anders' cock.

\------

There was a moment of struggle as Anders kicked one of his lanky legs free of his smalls, but it made room for Logan between his legs and that was a _brilliant_ outcome as far as he was concerned. The sudden, stunning wet heat of Logan's tongue on his cock made him keen and grip the bedding on either side of his hips, knuckles white as his fingers knotted in the cloth. "Fuck," he muttered, before he was breathing more of those lilting, foreign words. 

His stomach muscles were twitching, his balls already drawing up, so close from just that one long lick that he was going to embarrass himself. The extended kissing and touching, the up and down of their bath, just the extended proximity, all of it had him so keyed up. That with the fatigue, the interrupted sleep of earlier, had him muttering in his first language, his mother's family's native tongue, he realized suddenly. He bit his lip, trying to stop the nonsense, the broken phrases mixed with normal speech, pleas and prayers. 

He hadn't done that in a long time, but he was so _gone_ for Logan, he wasn't sure how well he could corral any of his responses.

\------

Logan was grinning positively smugly when Anders started speaking again. He tongued lightly at Ander's slit, swirled his tongue around the head, but then Anders was biting his lip and holding back and Logan pulled away, giving him a tiny frown. "Anders. I want to hear you, love." He bent closer again, warm breath wafting against Anders' skin, touched his tongue lightly just below the head once and then waited, his hands rubbing up and down Anders' thighs.

\------

Anders whimpered when Logan pulled away and gave a tight, embarrassed laugh at the gentle chastisement. "I don't even know what I'm saying, Logan. You're driving me crazy." His thighs were trembling with the effort of not pressing up against Logan's mouth. "And I know you don't know what I'm saying." 

He wet his lips, then gave another shaky laugh, before murmuring, throaty and low, " _Gjörðu svo vel, snerta mig_ ," in a tone that could only be shameless begging, as he rolled his hips ever so slightly and his cock twitched toward his stomach.

\------

Logan smirked, one corner of his mouth higher than the other. "The point is that you're sayin' it, darlin'," he drawled, the nonchalance of the statement undone by the rasp in his voice. 

When Anders begged, he shifted forward slightly, anchoring Anders' hips to the bed with one big hand and gripping the base of his shaft with the other, and swallowed him down, slowly, bobbing slightly to take more of him with each movement until his mouth met his fist. He hummed at the noises Anders was making, more of a moan really when Anders fell back into babbling. He tongued the underside of the shaft, pulling back more than he had yet and this time when he bobbed back down he twisted his wrist and stroked up as well. His eyes flicked up to Anders.

\------

The way Logan's mouth worked him, his hand anchoring him the only thing that kept him from bucking and writhing, Anders was a wreck by the time he was bobbing along his full length, hand stroking as well. He'd released one hand from its deathgrip on the blanket and had it fisted in his hair, the sharp line of his adam's apple visible on the arched line of his throat, head thrown back. 

He was speaking absolute nonsense, the two languages mixed in a stuttering tangle, the pleading, desperate notes rising higher. His eyes snapped open and he raised his head to meet Logan's gaze. "Love, love I can't. You're... I'm going to. _Ó Guð minn góður_. Please." It ended in a keen, tendons in his throat sharp as he strained to hold back his orgasm.

\------

Logan groaned around him. Between the way Anders had thrown his head back, the way he writhed beneath him, and the words coming out of his mouth in both languages, it was a wonder he was able to keep ahold of himself. His hips rocked against the sheets, seeking some kind of friction futilely, and then Anders raised his head and met his eyes and Logan swirled his tongue one more time and breathed deeply and swallowed Anders down as far as he could. He loosened his grip on the base of the shaft and pumped a few more times, blue eyes locked on Anders' golden ones.

\------

That seemed like an invitation, encouragement, permission? Anders wasn't sure, but he couldn't hold back, the slick wet heat of Logan's mouth on his cock, the strong, calloused fingers gripping him and stroking and it was like he was being pulled inside out from the bottoms of his feet in the best way. 

The string of nonsense that he'd been muttering cut off in just a litany of Logan's name, "Logan, oh fuck, Logan, yeah, yeah, Logan!" until he was coming, body curved up off the bed toward him at first, all his muscles contracting together, and then falling back and arching the opposite direction, eyes black and blown as he kept them locked with Logan's. 

There was nothing like this, nothing like the connection, the safety he felt to just _feel_ with Logan, and he was a twitching, whimpering mess.

\------

Logan was making obscene, wet noises as he swallowed. He eased off with a soft moan, brushed the line of spit gleaming from his mouth to Anders' cock away with the back of a hand and licked his lips as he sat up. He couldn't remember any blow job he'd given that was quite so intense, between the eye contact and the noises they had both been making, and god, that he could drive Anders to such a mess with something so simple (probably not his best; it had been a long time) was enough to make his heart swell with emotion. It was...grounding, somehow, yet another reminder that this was _real_ that Anders did, actually, feel the same way he did, and that was amazing and wonderful and everything he'd ever wanted hitting him all over again. 

He kissed along Anders' hip and up his stomach and chest, gentle, nuzzling kisses as Anders came down again, until he was hovering over him, one hand braced by his head. "Hi," he breathed, when they were at eye level again, smiling, blue eyes big and round with warmth and love and devotion.

\------

Anders just had to lie there and breathe for a few long moments as the singing in his veins, the rushing of the blood in his ears slowly ebbed and he could remember his name. It was like the soft nuzzles and kisses of Logan working up his body called him back to himself and by the time his face was even with Anders' he could lift up and take his mouth in a slow, worshiping kiss, tongue slicking into Logan's mouth to taste himself, and a soft echo of his earlier desperate noises in his throat. 

He let his head fall back after a moment, and whispered back, "Hi." His eyes were still a little dazed and glassy. "You're amazing, you know that?" He reached a hand between them to press against Logan's chest and then trail down lower until he could brush his fingers over the crown of his cock.

\------

Logan combed his fingers through Anders' hair as they kissed, his eyes sliding shut, lips tender and pliant. He let out a soft sigh as Anders dropped back, following after to press kisses across Anders' cheekbones and over his brow, soft presses of his lips, attentive and worshipful. When Anders spoke again, he let out a small dismissive noise before he could stop himself, and then Anders' fingers were brushing low and he whined. He could feel his face go hot, and he wanted to believe it was because Anders was touching him again, but he knew it was because he hadn't meant to let that slip, quiet though it had been. Anders didn't need to be burdened with his feelings of inadequacy, not now, perhaps not ever. They were ridiculous, and Logan knew it, out of place with how confidently and capably he carried himself and, generally, thought of himself, but there it was. 

He didn't know about amazing. Anders was amazing. Logan was...just Logan.

\------

There was a spark of indignance in Anders when he heard that noise come out of Logan's throat. He knew his voice well enough after months of listening to him obsessively on his headphones to have mapped a few things, and self-deprecation was one he'd always found sort of charming. Until he realized how deep those threads ran. It wasn't just an amazing person being humble. He really wasn't certain of his own worth. 

He nudged at Logan, having no chance to turn him over by force, but hoping he'd go with gentle pressure. The bed was big enough there was no danger that he would roll off, so that he could follow him over. "Love you so much," he whispered before kissing him. That was something Logan couldn't deny, at least. Especially not with Anders' wicked, eager tongue in his mouth.

\------

Logan rolled over and dropped back when Anders nudged him, his hands smoothing down Anders' back and then gripping at his waist when Anders followed him. He moaned softly in response, lips parted. "I love you too," he whispered when the kiss broke. "So much." He kissed Anders' chin. He reached and brushed back some of Anders' hair, rolling his hips slightly. "Anders - please."

\------

"Anything, Logan. All for you." Anders ground against him, his cock no longer hard, but the sparks of pleasure from the sensitive skin, the pressure, the feeling of _Logan_ under him, enough to make him shudder with pleasure. He kissed him again, then at his throat, licking and biting over his pulse, down to the top of his shoulder, then down to his chest. His mouth closed over one of Logan's nipples, sucking hard, while his fingers clasped around his cock, gently, almost teasing. 

One stroke, a second, then his tongue rasping across the peaked flesh. He murmured between wet, open mouth kisses, tongue tracing the hard lines of muscle across Logan's chest, "God, want you. How can you make me want you so bad when I just came in your mouth?"

\------

Logan inhaled sharply at the words, again, and the pressure of Anders' grinding against him. He arched up, hips rocking, spine curving, the muscles in his neck standing out and those in his abdomen contracting. "Anders..." he panted, on edge, ridiculously wound up, every muscle in his body it felt like crying out for release. He moaned, at the kisses, at the clasp of Anders' fingers, let out a breathy laugh at Anders' last comment that devolved into a whine. "Fuck, love, Anders, please, oh god, please." His hips bucked up into Anders' grasp.

\------

Anders hummed and slid down Logan's body, arching his ass up in the air as he did, until he could tongue the slit of his cock while he kept the strokes light, teasing brushes. He looked up to Logan's face, wanting to see his expression as he slipped his lips around the head and then pushed down, down right into the back of his throat in a single slick glide. He kept his tongue wide and flat, rasping it against the vein. He managed to take it further even than the first time, long nose brushing into Logan's curls as he tilted his head and inhaled, pausing just a bit until he slid back up. 

His hand took over on the spit-slick shaft as he sucked hard and pulled off. "Like that, love?" he whispered, breath cooler against the wet head, and then sucked and tongued gently around the glans while watching Logan's face.

\------

Logan watched him move, eyes wide, only a small ring of blue visible around his dark pupil. His back arched, muscles flexing, and when Anders pulled off he whined even with Anders' hand still on his cock. "Ye-es, fuck," he nodded, reaching up to grab at his own hair almost painfully. And then even the gentle press of Anders' tongue was so good, it was too much, all of this, the long hours of wanting to touch and half-touches and then bringing Anders off and Logan groaned, stiffening. "Anders, I'm - fuck - I..." He broke off into a moan.

\------

Anders hummed in agreement as he groped with one hand for Logan's free one and guided it to his own hair, expression needy. Then he pushed back down, swallowing Logan whole. He circled the base of his cock with a gentle circle of pressure that he bobbed along with his mouth, not backing up far at all, mimicking shallow, urgent thrusts into the back of his mouth, where he swallowed and tightened all the right muscles.

\------

Logan tangled his fingers in Anders' hair without hesitation, needing the grounding of it, and when Anders tightened his throat around him, he arched off the bed again, thighs tense, groaning, "Anders, fuck, fuck, oh fuck, _Anders_..." voice breathy, vowels drawn out. He tossed his head to the side and moved his hand down from his hair, biting down on his fist to muffle his cries as his hips bucked up one last time and he came, hips twitching shallowly through it. 

He slumped back to the bed, breathing heavily through his nose, little moans and whines still making it out past the hand in his mouth. God, everything Anders did to him was amazing without fail, and Logan was completely certain he did not deserve him.

\------

Anders kissed and stroked and nuzzled as Logan came down, giving him a last gentle lick as he pulled away and inched up to where he lay sprawled and panting. He was smiling but it wasn't wicked triumph, it was shy and querying. "Okay?" he asked softly. "I didn't try the magic thing again because I'm tired and it hasn't been super steady, and I hope it wasn't boring without it?" 

He was blushing as he asked, but there was actual concern in his voice. If he couldn't make Logan feel good without the spark and sizzle of magic, then what happened when they went home? He kissed over Logan's heart and then moved to lie next to him on his side, a hand still splayed on his chest.

\------

"Boring?" Logan took his fist away from his mouth and stared up at Anders with large, perplexed blue eyes, voice a low rasp of indignance and arousal. He squinted at Anders and took a deep breath like he was going to launch into a lengthy rebuttal...

...and then promptly whapped Anders on the back of the head with his hand. Too lightly to hurt much, but enough to be pointed. "Boring, he asks. The love of my life with my cock in his mouth and he wants to know if I'm _bored_ ," he groused, lips half-quirking with amusement. And then he looked at Anders more intently and the smile faded. He sighed. "Jesus, Anders. I'm pretty sure I've never been so aroused in my life as I have been in the past two days, and that has nothing to do with the magic and everything to do with _you_ and your fucking gorgeous face and body and mind and heart and - and what have you." He looked away, embarrassed by his own sappiness at that last bit, and muttered, "God."

\------

The whap on the back of Anders' head made him flinch and hunch down for a moment, before giving Logan a reproachful look, opening his mouth for an indignant retort, looking defensive, bristly for just a moment, but he deflated all at once. He leaned in close and kissed his shoulder then the side of his neck. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that... I- I just wanted to make sure that you liked it." 

He reached tentatively for Logan's face, turned it gently back toward him. "I'm glad you like my face and body and mind and heart," he said softly, smile quirking hopefully, as his eyebrows arched. There was a shadow in his eyes still. He really had to control his fear response when Logan swatted at him like that, but he managed, his smile strengthening. "I just wanted to make sure I made you feel good, love, that's all. I promise."

\------

Logan's eyes were sharp on Anders' face at the flinch, though that was lost for a moment in his own embarrassment. When Anders turned his face back towards him, he sighed, studying him carefully before he replied. "You make me feel amazing, Anders," he said, softly. For a moment it was like he wasn't sure what to do with his hands, and then after a hesitation he wrapped his arms snugly around Anders' back and pulled him close. "'m sorry," he whispered, tipping his chin up to kiss Anders very very gently, a tender loving press of his lips.

\------

The reassurance was nice and Anders went into the hug eagerly, trying not to feel like such a needy shit for wanting it, for asking questions that made him sound stupid to Logan. Honestly? Boring? He was out of his depth. He just wanted Logan to be _happy_ with a visceral, almost painful intensity. 

The apology was a surprise. He kissed him back, brow furrowing. "Sorry for what?" he asked, then chewed on the inside of his lower lip as he studied Logan's face.

\------

Logan ran his hands up and down Anders' back. He made a small, unhappy face, one that seemed aimed more at himself than Anders. "The...whacking," he said, after a moment. "It's...a habit, and-" he stopped, looking away and biting his bottom lip. He didn't really want to explain that the only other person he was fairly physically affectionate to was his brother, _again_ , because he was pretty sure he'd said something to that effect already, and anyways it was really kind of pathetic sounding when put like that, not to mention he and Carver's interactions were in no way comparable to the way he wanted to be with his _boyfriend_. But he needed to say _something_ , so he looked back at Anders. "I just, I don't really know how to tell you how amazing you are, Anders, how amazing all of this is, and I - this - ugh." He blinked rapidly. "Nothing about you is boring, love. We could literally be doing nothing at all, and just having you here with me would still be wonderful, okay?"

\------

"Oh, Logan." Anders looked like he was going to cry for a second and then he rolled over onto Logan again, kissing him long and hard, and deep. "I'm sorry. I did it again. God. I... I didn't mean to fuck it up. Let's forget it." He nuzzled into his throat, splaying over his chest. 

There was no way he was going to get the chance to stay close to Logan if he couldn't keep from getting maudlin and dragging him down directly after sex. He needed to learn how to let it go, his insecurity, his need for reassurances afterwards.

\------

Logan grunted, not really from the weight of Anders splaying out over his chest, but more from how distraught he looked, the way he was trying to brush...all of this...under the rug. Logan wrinkled his nose for a moment while he decided what to say, one hand still roaming gently over Anders' back, the other moving to scritch comfortingly in his hair. He shifted, kissed the side of Anders' jaw and then brushed his lips over the bottom of his earlobe and whispered into his ear, "This is what I'm telling you, love - it's actually impossible for you to fuck this up."

\------

That seemed unlikely, especially if he kept taking wonderful, incredible, delicious sex and dragging the afterglow into a terrible angst bath. He hugged to Logan tightly and nodded. "Okay," he murmured. "You're... really too good to be true." He rubbed his head against the hand in his hair, eyes closing before he started making wild promises and sentimental declarations. He was feeling fragile in his luck at ever having met Logan, let alone found him in the flesh.

\------

Logan rolled his eyes good-naturedly, lips curving upwards at the corners. "I'm really not," he murmured. "You, on the other hand..." He took advantage of Anders' closed eyes to kiss his eyelids and then down to the tip of his nose, humming. Logan was quite ordinary, and sometimes cowardly, and the best one could probably say about him in general was that he worked hard. Anders, however... "You're brave, and smart, and passionate, and I think you're the most admirable man I've ever known, and I love you more than I honestly ever thought I was capable of loving anybody."

\------

"You really are." Anders huffed softly as Logan said all those wonderful things, but couched in there was his belief he wasn't worth as much. "Logan, you are. You're loyal, and caring, and loving. And brave. You are," he insisted when he saw Logan winding up to disagree. "Now unless you want to hear me tell you how wrong you are about how wonderful I am, you're going to have to let me have this one." He kissed him with a fierce sort of intensity, his heart aching with the thought that this wonderful, precious person, thought so little of himself.

\------

Logan huffed back at him, but kissed back just as eagerly, if less intensely, opening his mouth under Anders' to coax Anders' tongue past his lips. When the kiss broke Logan leaned up again for one last peck before settling back. "Fine," he conceded, a little begrudgingly but finding himself more almost amused by the pair of them. There they both were, convinced utterly that the other was too good for them, both a little unsure of their own worth but wanting so badly that they were both willing to push past what perhaps otherwise would have held them back. Logan tilted his head and ran his fingers down Anders' face, then took hold of his chin."I'll just have to convince you, if you'll give me the time it takes, and you can do the same, hmm?"

\------

Anders nodded, the stubble on his chin scraping against Logan's palm, smile a little lopsided to hide the wistful edge underneath. "All the time you need love." He shifted to slide down onto the bed at Logan's side again, keeping one leg thrown over his hips and his head on his shoulder. 

The bed was comfortable, a thick wool filled mattress on the base, with a featherbed atop roughly the texture of a cloud. Then there were several layers of blankets and quilts. "This is so much better than the straw in the inn." They could both stretch their legs out without having feet poking off the end, and could even lay shoulder-to-shoulder without being too cramped with worry they'd fall off.

\------

"Seriously," Logan agreed, immensely glad they could both stretch out without worrying about feet poking off or one or the other rolling off an edge. He wondered briefly if the more comfortable bed would help with Anders' nightmares, and he didn't think it probably worked like that, but it was worth hoping for anyways. "Mm." He kissed the top of Anders' head and sat up. "Jangly thing on the door, right." He glanced at Anders. "Be right back, love." 

It took some rummaging in the drawers of the bedside table and then ultimately Logan found a rather large tome, an illuminated copy of the Chant, by the looks of it. He carried that over to the door and propped it up vertically so that it would fall over and hopefully thump very loudly if the door was opened. He put his hands on his hips and eyed it. "Well, perhaps not the best solution, but better than nothing." He turned, the cool air on his bare skin finally getting the better of him, and he rubbed his arms and went to set a small fire in the fireplace, arranging the wood neatly in a pyramid shape with the quick fingers of someone who has done something many times, and not hesitating until he came to actually lighting it. He concentrated briefly and summoned a small ball of flame to his palm which he held to the wood until it caught. And then he was moving back to the bed and crawling in besides Anders again with a contented hum.

\------

Anders had flushed slightly that Logan had remembered the door alarm request, though he laughed a little at the illuminated copy of the Chant being the solution. Better than nothing, indeed. "Well, if it doesn't do the job we can burn it and be proper anti-establishment mages, hmm?" He slid off the bed while Logan set the fire and pulled back the covers, throwing some of the more obnoxious pillows that had tassels and scratchy metallic embroider onto the floor. 

He climbed back in, leaving the blankets open on one side and sliding over so that Logan had room to climb in. He burrowed into Logan immediately, as if he'd been gone for hours and not across the room for five minutes. "Sleepy?" he asked softly.

\------

Logan chuckled and nodded, admitting the idea had some appeal even if the book was rather beautiful and part of him was loathe to destroy something that had obviously been such work to create. He curled in around Anders, on his side this time, and settled the blankets over them both. "Mm," he agreed, fluffing a pillow more comfortably under his head and then drawing Anders even closer, one arm around his waist. "You?"

\------

"Yep." Anders nuzzled into Logan's chest, arm thrown over his waist. He was going to fall fast and hard, and hopefully too deep to dream this time. He sighed, trying not to sound too apprehensive. 

He took a moment to concentrate but the wisps that had been bobbing idly near the fireplace finally winked out, and the last of the tension, the part of him that had been holding their presence steady, relaxed and he yawned widely.

\------

"Good," Logan murmured, planting a kiss on Anders' brow. He was warm and sated and he had Anders in his arms, and it was...kind of perfect really. It wasn't going to take him long to fall asleep. 

Logan lay there for a few moments, holding Anders close, listening to him breathe. "Anders?" He asked softly eventually, waiting for a quiet hum from Anders in response before he added, "Love you."

\------

Anders nodded into Logan's chest, a pleased, sleepy hum in his throat. "Yep," he repeated, low and half asleep already. After another few breaths he added in a whisper, "Love you." He went slowly boneless, heavy and warm, breath tickling over Logan's skin with each few beats of his heart.

\------

Logan smiled, nuzzling into Anders' hair and closing his eyes. He was not long behind Anders in falling asleep, breath slowing down, body relaxing loosely into the mattress. He twitched once as he fell asleep, brought back to wakefulness for a few moments before he was out for good, arm tightening about Anders' waist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the language Anders speaks in this chapter is Icelandic, and he says "Here you go, touch me" and "Oh my god", respectively, I believe.


End file.
